House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) told Defense News in an interview published Friday that he will prioritize acquisition reform.
“I’m a big believer in competition and commercial off-the-shelf technology. We need to make sure we encourage as many competitors as possible,” Smith said. “I’m thinking of small businesses that might be intimidated by the bureaucracy and able to offer the ideas that they have, thus reducing the competition for goods and services that can help the military.”
He said he believes accelerating the decision-making process could help encourage competition.
Smith also discussed the need for a coherent strategy for national security and the need to focus on emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, hypersonics and quantum computing amid the threats posed by Russia and China.
He said he hopes to come up with a clear Democratic national security policy. “The clearest declaration of what a Democratic national security policy would look like will come from two places: my committee, and whoever our eventual nominee is. And yes, I think it would be worth it to have that conversation,” Smith added.
