Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

• Position: UP FRONT

Bruce Jette, the Army's assistant secretary for acquisition, logistics and technology, said he and Secretary Mark Esper regularly dine with defense industry CEOs.

"The secretary is very much into making us much more accessible to industry," he told reporters recently. "Every Monday night we have dinner with a CEO of a company, and it has been everything from... big defense contractors to second- or third-tier suppliers."

The dinner meetings enable company leaders to establish a rapport with the service and create more...