Industry, Government Impede Defense IT Acquisition

Archaic acquisition regulations designed to reduce risk, teamed with commercial technology controls, are inhibiting efforts to procure information technology systems quickly and effectively, according to military and civilian experts. Two separate Wednesday panel discussions at West 2015, being held in San Diego, February 10-12, addressed this dichotomy in discussions that went beyond normal acquisition criticism.

Dr. John Zangardi, acting chief information officer, Department of the Navy, said a program manager’s job is increasingly more difficult with all the rules and regulations. He wondered how much centralized management is good for information technology. Zangardi also pointed out that, unlike shipbuilding or aircraft construction in which government controls the process, industry is in control of information technology.

Gordon R. England, former secretary of the Navy and former deputy secretary of defense, said that many factors keep the Defense Department from operating as a rational enterprise. For example, when he was at the department there were 27 layers of authority from the secretary on down, and the department had 128 studies on how to improve acquisition.

Ellen Lord, president and CEO of Textron Systems Corporation, expanded on England’s description by noting that the government has “oversight on top of oversight on top of oversight.” She noted that her company has as many as three times the auditors reviewing programs that it used to have. All the time spent attending to audits is time taken away from innovation, she pointed out.

Jerry DeMuro, president and CEO of BAE Systems, added that his firm has audits for 2005 and 2006 that haven’t been completed yet. Addressing England’s comment about Defense Department layers, DeMuro said, “It would be difficult to find someone who says these added layers are improving the product or getting it to the warfighters. It’s time and money we are not spending on innovation.”