Rear Adm. John Nowell, the U.S. Navy’s director of military personnel plans and policy, said that the service’s biggest challenge in readiness is “maintaining a stable and predictable budget,” the Navy said Tuesday. Nowell noted during the recent Sea-Air-Space exposition in Maryland that his office is addressing the Navy’s gaps in readiness that were identified in fiscal 2018.

“We really worked to fill those gaps at sea and we’ve addressed a lot those readiness challenges, but we’re not done yet,” he added. James Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, said at the event’s key luncheon that he seeks to address four main priorities including affordability, agility, lethal capacity and workforce development.

“When we can partner between the industry, the ship’s captain and, wherever we’re supervising on the government side, we get great examples of us delivering great things out to the fleet,” he noted.

Other Navy efforts that were discussed during the conference include the Education for Seapower initiative, which Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Russell Smith said would help sailors focus on their duties while preparing for life outside of service. This year’s Sea-Air-Space exposition was based on the Chief of Naval Operations’ Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority 2.0 and has the theme “Sustainability, Agility, Superiority.”

Sens. Joni Ernst and Martin Heinrich unveiled a bill to allow the continuation of the Department of Defense’s Mentor-Protege Program. The Defense Small Business Advancement Act will assist small businesses that serve as suppliers to private companies, civilian agencies and DoD customers through mentorship efforts from seasoned contractors, the office of Sen. Heinrich said Tuesday.

Scope of mentor services will include managerial, technical and business development assistance to protege companies. The legislation will also enable mentors to seek assistance through universities, institutions, procurement technical assistance centers and small business development centers. 

“This bill gives small businesses an opportunity to partner with larger defense companies who have the resources and experience to navigate the procurement process and compete for contracts, which will create good paying jobs in our communities and provide better products for the Department of Defense,” said Sen. Heinrich.

The Government Accountability Office found that the Pentagon continues increasing its spending on new weapons capabilities despite recent major acquisition reforms aiming to limit cost growth in the agency’s modernization efforts. GAO issued Tuesday its annual assessment of the Department of Defense’s tech spending in the past two years. 

GAO said that despite adopting new acquisition processes in 2010, the Pentagon’s 2018 portfolio of weapon programs increased from $8 billion to $1.69 trillion to support 82 new major acquisition programs. The watchdog associated the cost growth to DoD’s continued focus on adding new capabilities to existing systems instead of launching new programs to modernize the military. The lack of full and open competition for contracts also contributed to the increase. 

“DoD did not compete 67 percent of 183 major contracts currently reported for its 82 major programs,” GAO said. The agency awarded most of the contracts to only five corporations and their partner companies. DoD also failed implement knowledge-based acquisition practices prior to development of technologies, which could have helped lower cost and accelerate acquisition.