Quest for innovation prompts 'Acquisition Challenge'.

• Author: Book, Elizabeth G.
• Position: Washington Pulse - Brief Article

A $12-million weapon-modernization program sponsored by Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., seeks ideas from contractors on how to improve existing weapons systems. The so-called "Defense Acquisition Challenge" got underway in March.

In charge of the Defense Acquisition Challenge is a new organization called Office of Comparative Testing, which used to be known as the Pentagon's Office of Foreign Comparative Testing. The word "foreign" no longer is part of the organization's name, because future tests will involve both domestic and non-U.S. competitors.

While Congress allocated $12 million for the Defense Acquisition Challenge in fiscal year 2003, Hunter-chairman of the House Armed Services Committee-would like to see the program continue through 2007. According to the legislation he sponsored, the Defense Acquisition Challenge "shall provide any person or activity within or outside the Department of Defense with the opportunity to propose alternatives, to be known as challenge proposals, at the component, subsystem, or system level of an existing Department of Defense acquisition program that would result in...