The U.S. Air Force has launched a new acquisition initiative that seeks to facilitate further dialogue and cooperation between the service and its industry partners to drive innovation and cost savings, DoD News reported Thursday.
Jim Garamone writes that the Bending the Cost Curve program focuses on enhancing interaction with industry, expanding market competition and improving internal processes.
It will help the Air Force “better understand how processes, procedures and some of the choices we make can inadvertently contribute to rising costs, the stifling of innovation and slow processes,” said Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James.
She noted that the service will work with industry to perform cost capability analysis on the the T-X jet trainer, Long-Range Stand-Off Weapon, Multi-Adaptive Podded System and Space-Based Infrared System programs to determine points where small changes can make considerable reductions to cost.
The Air Force will also hold PlugFest Plus events to give vendors the opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities live in front of potential government customers, the report said.
James added that industry feedback also pointed to the need for a business analytics capability to facilitate spending decisions based on empirical data.
“The Air Force needs to get an enterprise view of our information technology spending so that we can understand tradeoffs and make wise future investment decisions,” she said.
