Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has said the Defense Department should tolerate risks through experimentation when it comes to the acquisition of new technology platforms, FCW reported Thursday.
“We’ve got to allow people to make mistakes,” Thornberry said at a committee hearing Thursday.
“One way to help with that is to be able to experiment and prototype so you that you see if something is going to work before you buy a bunch of them,†he added.
Sean Lyngaas writes Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), a ranking member of the House panel, discussed the issue of bureaucracy in DoD’s acquisition system during the hearing.
“What I’m most interested in is how we can more empower the individuals at the Pentagon to make those decisions with fewer layers of bureaucracy,” Smith said.
