Should the Defense Industrial Base be Saved Using Multi-Year Contracts?

Abstract

Since the end of the Cold War the United States Defense Industrial Base has gotten smaller by mergers and acquisitions in the market place and from pressure by government legislators looking to harvest money from the Department of Defense and specifically from the Department of the Army. One approach to easing the stress on the industrial base is for the Army to use an increased number of congressionally approved multiyear procurement contracts. The critics of this practice cite the loss of flexibility to reallocate funding in the Army as well as the perceived loss in oversight by members of congress who authorize and appropriate money to the services. Should the Army pursue more multiyear procurement contracts to allow the defense industry to better allocate resources or should the Army continue using shorter contracts in order to maintain funding reallocation when necessary?

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 17, 2009
Accession Number
ADA498527

Entities

People

  • Steven F. Cummings

Organizations

  • United States Army War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Air Force
  • Congress
  • Contractors
  • Contracts
  • Defense Industry
  • Department Of Defense
  • Education
  • Global Positioning Systems
  • Globalization
  • Government Procurement
  • Governments
  • Manufacturing
  • Personnel Management
  • Tanker Aircraft
  • United States
  • War Colleges

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Economics