Pentagon once again will try to fix acquisition system.

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

* The financial wreckage from years of badly managed programs is significant: $50 billion worth of canceled systems since 2001. Several big-ticket projects such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the Navy's Ford-class aircraft carriers are not yet out of the woods.

Every defense secretary since at least the Nixon administration has sought, mostly unsuccessfully, to reduce waste in Pentagon programs by rewriting policies, changing regulations and increasing oversight.

The Pentagon unveiled another batch of procurement reforms, known as "better buying power 2.0." The 1.0 version was rolled out in September 2010, when then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned that the post-9/11 money gusher was drying up, and the Defense Department had to clean up its contracting act.

Pentagon officials acknowledge that they do not expect things to change overnight, simply because the Pentagon's procurement system is too large and complex--it acquires $400 billion a year worth of products and services, and has a workforce...