Military acquisitions.

• Author: Knemeyer, Frank
• Position: Readers' Forum - Letter to the editor

* The article by retired Air Force Gen. Lawrence Skantze (August 2011, p.6) is an excellent summary of the acquisition situation in the Pentagon. It is interesting that the USAF flag rank and top Defense Department civilians, along with Congress, permitted this situation to happen.

The last paragraph of the article gives a realistic approach to resolving the acquisition chaos in the Defense Department. I have proposed a reorganization of the Defense Department to implement an effective approach to resolving the acquisition problem with an in-house technical capability, or acquisition corps as stated by Skantze.

In order to make it independent of the Pentagon bureaucracy, Defense must be reorganized into two specific departments - the Department of Operations and the Department of Acquisition. The Department of Operations would comprise four operational services under the direction of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff The Acquisition Department is comprised of research, development, testing and evaluation resources from each military service integrated into specific technical centers under civilian direction. The department would be directed by a civilian. To ensure tactical...