Simplify defense acquisition.

• Author: Windham, Jeff
• Position: Readers' Forum - Letter to the editor

* The Defense Department's acquisition process exists only to provide technologically advanced tools to the war fighter. An honest analysis over the last 20 years can only conclude that successful acquisition programs are rare.

The April 2012 Defense Business Board study, "Linking and Streamlining the Defense Requirements, Acquisition and Budget Processes," highlights the problems in the balkanized acquisition structure. To quote from the study: "The Department of Defense's acquisition system continues to take longer, cost more and deliver fewer quantities and capabilities than originally planned."

We are living with an acquisition process designed in the 1970s and 1980s, with every reform from the Packard Commission, Goldwater-Nichols act, Defense Secretary Perry's initiatives, and yes, Better Buying Power 2.0 simply piled on top of an increasingly dysfunctional system.

Each service, with its own acquisition bureaucracy, has multiple duplicating functions both internally and across services. The net result: Infighting, lack of accountability and a waste of resources. I challenge anyone to sit down and write the organization chart for the services' acquisition functions. If it doesn't end up looking like a plate of spaghetti, you haven't done it right. Organizational spaghetti isn't conducive to providing cutting-edge products on time and within budget.

It is a paradox that as our weapon systems get more complex, the organizations and processes to manage those systems must get simpler.

The defense acquisition process and organizational structure must not be...