Less money, but still business as usual.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: Defense Watch

* As the dust begins to settle to reveal a leaner defense budget, Pentagon contractors are strategizing for the new business environment. They also will be parsing the latest batch of Pentagon policies designed to turn around failing weapon acquisition programs.

The latest guidance to Defense Department program managers and contractors, known as "Better Buying Power 2.0," hammers home the need to cut costs, shorten the procurement cycle and ensure money is not wasted on irrelevant weapon systems.

The tenets of BBP 2.0 are hard to quarrel with. "From a taxpayer perspective, any initiative focused on doing more for less is beneficial," says Kara M. Sacilotto, a partner in Wiley Rein's government contracts practice. Some of the initiatives are also favorable to contractors, she writes in a BNA article. "BBP 2.0 proposes to engage industry on requirements or processes levied on contractors that can be eliminated because their costs outweigh their benefits," she says. "Less bureaucracy is always popular."

To many defense contractors, though, this is a movie they have already seen several times.

Executives for years have sought participation in the early stages of the Pentagon's "requirements" process. Industry wants this, says Sacilotto, "for the simple reason that clear and achievable requirements are more likely to lead to successful programs and avoid disputes."

One of the most common frustrations voiced by defense executives is that they often do not have enough insight into what their customers want. When the military wants a new piece of equipment, it publishes a request for industry bids. But companies that are seeking to make seed investments in technologies that they can later sell to the Pentagon find there is no mechanism for defense officials to communicate their broad challenges. As one executive put it, "We don't just want to know the military needs a radio. We want to know what their communications problems are."

But the Pentagon has not figured out a way to be able to bring contractors into early program discussions before a formal solicitation is published. It is mostly a legal issue. Procurement laws require that all potential contractors be allowed to compete.

Despite a budget crunch and a rollout of new efficiency-minded policies, it looks as if it will be mostly business as usual at the Defense Department.

The Defense Department's top acquisitions official, Undersecretary Frank Kendall, recognizes that more regulations are...