Shortening Acquisition Cycle Times, Making Schedule a Key Performance Parameter

Abstract

Fielding weapon systems in a timely manner has been criticized for decades by congress. Recent years have seen serious erosion in the ability of the Department of Defense to field new weapons systems quickly in response to changing threats, as well as a large increase in the cost of these weapons systems. Acquisition reforms continue to take hold yet there is no evidence of shorter weapon system cycle times which gets the weapon system to the warfighter faster and inherently controls costs. To increase the likelihood of achieving reduced weapon system cycle time the Army should adopt a schedule key performance parameter (KPP) for weapon systems. This would serve as disruptive change to the acquisition process. This emphasis on absolutely meeting the warfighters need date would drive the acquisition community to sign up for less risky schedules which then would drive stable cost and performance estimates at the onset of a program. The net result of this change would reduce acquisition cycle times with a corresponding potential increase in technology development outside of the Acquisition community.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2010
Accession Number
ADA520149

Entities

People

  • Danny A. Wiley

Organizations

  • United States Army War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Cyber
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Air Force
  • Congress
  • Contractors
  • Contracts
  • Defense Planning
  • Department Of Defense
  • Education
  • Governments
  • Law
  • Military Acquisition
  • National Security
  • System Software
  • Systems Engineering
  • United States
  • War Colleges
  • Weapon Systems

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Life Cycle Cost Analysis