Two industry executives have provided their views on the Pentagon’s efforts to reform its weapons acquisition process in the face of budget uncertainty and international security threats, Defense News reported Sunday.Paul McCleary writes Ben Fitzgerald, a program director at the Center for a New American Security, believes a key challenge for the department is adapting commercial technology to sustain the military’s strategic advantage.
“The relationship between strategy, technology and business is more important than ever,†Fitzgerald said, according to Defense News.
Loren Thompson, chief operating officer of the Lexington Institute, observed that bureacracy and inadequate budget are affecting the defense acquisition system.
“There’s a blizzard of paper coming out of [the Pentagon] about acquisition that is coming late in the game and might not amount to much,†Thompson told the publication.
Fitzgerald thinks industry perception and market size play a substantial role in the department’s technology purchasing, adding “that’s why we see this as an issue of strategy and not just acquisition reform or process improvement,” according to Defense News.
