Acquisition Reform Research Articles

Ground vehicle modeling and simulation of military vehicles using high performance computing

In support of the Department of Defense (DOD) mandated acquisition reform initiatives to reduce vehicle-related life cycle costs and time-lines, the Tank-automotive and Armaments Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) is using simulation-based acquisition strategies to investigate the dynamic performance of wheeled and tracked ground vehicles throughout the vehicle development, testing, and fielding life cycle process. The paper will describe how modeling and simulation (M&S) is applied to answer a wide variety of design and performance evaluation questions and will depict a series of simulation-based engineering projects that build on the Army's simulation investments as a tool to investigate and answer real-world vehicle design, acquisition, and engineering support questions.

Buying in a Businesslike Fashion— And Paying More?

The government, particularly the Department of Defense (DoD), is undergoing yet another wave of acquisition reforms, which are intended to bring commercial buying practices to DoD's purchasing operations. This research shows that, prior to these reforms, the DoD's buying practices were superior to commercial practices in terms of prices paid for a large number of electronic and engine parts. The research compares DoD and purchasing of more than 676,000 identical items costing more than $60 million with commercial purchasing of the identical items. It finds that the DoD's purchasing superiority holds even when purchasing costs are considered. The DoD achieved these results because it was already using commercial practices commonly followed by large firms: aggregating purchases, using cost data, and negotiating aggressively in markets with few suppliers. Some of the recent reforms will undermine the DoD's ability to exploit these common commercial practices and will raise the government's costs.

Acquisition Reform in the United States: Assessing Change

Acquisition Reform in the United States: Assessing Change

Seeing Through the Fog—Attaining ‘Full Spectrum Dominance’ with the System‐of‐Systems Through Operational Engineering

ABSTRACTMany discussions and articles address the business and military changes supporting implementation of Joint Vision 2010 and its system‐of‐systems approach. The dynamics of international military operations and commitments, coupled with accelerating information technologies, can lead to confusion and uncertainty. Customary rules recommend caution, even stopping, when confusion and uncertainty are present, yet the needed changes counsel toward accelerated efforts. Currently, systems engineering does not completely address delivering “operational war fighting capabilities,” or foster commanders' confidence to fully exploit those capabilities upon delivery.Acquisition reform supports accelerating delivery of systems. Likewise, accelerated delivery of “war fighting capabilities” within any opponents' fielding and deployment cycle is imperative. Technical advances in modeling and simulation, utilization concepts, and innovative evaluation methods create an opportunity to facilitate redevelopment of doctrine, operations, and training prior to producing hardware systems. On‐line simulation and evaluation tools can overcome the need for physical systems.Specifically, this paper lays out the opportunity to evolve systems engineering to another level, operational engineering, which leverages from the modeling and simulation environment, prior to hardware production. That modeling and simulation paired with coevolution of procedures and on‐line analysis will produce a trained customer base, fully prepared for deliveries of “operational war fighting capabilities”.

The Measure of Performance in Logistics Acquisition

Acquisition reform initiatives changed the way we buy logistics are bought Structured military standards and regulations were replaced with performance specifications to enable determination up front of the best logistics resources for a system as a function of the systems engineering process. The emphasis is on planning the acquisition to know “what, how, when, where, and why” before the contract is written. The need is to incorporate “guidance” in the contract to eliminate future supportability and sus-tainability issues and problems. The goal is to reduce redundancies in deliv-erables, use and enhance what is available, and to be flexible and innovative in meeting logistics requirements.

Bringing Acquisition Reform into Focus

The response of our defense industrial base to major changes, such as the collapse of the former Soviet Union, emphasize the need to continue to improve the way the United States buys weapon system...

Dynamics of Naval Ship Design: A Systems Approach

AbstractIn today's cost‐constrained environment, acquisition reform is a critical component in the design, production, and support of modern warships. This reform includes policies that require system acquisition programs to pursue commercial management and systems engineering practices. The application of Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD), concurrent engineering, open systems architecture, Total Quality Management (TQM), and Integrated Design Environments (IDE) have produced noteworthy commercial successes. Many defense acquisition programs have followed suite, implementing similar process improvements. However, as many commercial industries are finding, there are limits to the success of these improvements.Using the methods of System Dynamics, this paper examines the mechanisms which have lead to program instabilities in cost, schedule, and effectiveness. Modeling of these mechanisms provides a means to study past programs, and assess the potential savings that can be generated with the introduction of process improvements.As a case study, the paper examines the structures and resultant trends that impacted the design and acquisition of DDG 51. General process structures are studied including design interactions, schedule, resources, and allocation. Specific dynamic relationships between cost thresholds, design effort, and schedule are studied to show the ability of modeling to capture dynamic trends and predict results. Finally, a “what‐if?” scenario that looks at the application of IPPD is examined.

Automated Warfare Systems: An Engineering Perspective

ABSTRACT This paper offers a new paradigm for describing deployed naval systems. Acquisition reform, while encouraging the Department of Defense to be more dependent on industry, recognizes the important government role of ownership and accountability in acquiring things. Warfare systems are no exception. One of the factors to be considered is how the deployed force will use the warfare system. This perception, or mental image, is one view of the deployed force; that is, the viewpoint of the Defense acquisition community. This viewpoint is characterized by the concept that people are part of the warfare system and that the system components require human‐machine interfaces. This concept is the result of the evolution of automation that has required attention to be given to the detailed design of computer controlled machines. Collectively the people composing the deployed force—the Sailor—accomplish assigned missions by using machines to extend the physical and mental capabilities of humans. The Sailor's mental image, or viewpoint, is one of people trained to use machines as an extension of themselves. Thus, the acquisition community and the Sailor have different viewpoints of the deployed force in terms of the role of automated machines. This paper explores the relationship of these two viewpoints to each other and to the deployed force as a whole.

2 Integrating Government and Commercial Requirements – Serving Two Masters

ABSTRACTThe world market for launching satellites increased dramatically during the Preliminary Engineering and Manufacturing Development Phase of the United States Government's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle procurement program. This coincided with the U.S. Government's increased emphasis on acquisition reform ‐ insight versus oversight. These events brought about the following issues: Development funds could only support a single design for both government and commercial customers, Government and commercial requirements needed to be merged, The government needed assurance that its requirements would be preserved, and Government insight requirements had to be satisfied. The Boeing Company integrated and managed the Government Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) System Performance Requirements (SPR) and the Boeing commercial customer launch requirements into the Boeing Delta IV launch system development program. This paper describes the organization of the specification tree, the integration and flow‐down of requirements, requirements change management, the requirements verification, and the lessons learned from these activities.

2 Systems Engineering and the Joint Strike Fighter: The “Flagship” Program for Acquisition Reform

ABSTRACTThe Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program represents the largest potential aircraft contract for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) in the foreseeable future. It will provide replacement strike fighters for the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, and the U.S. Marine Corps, as well as for the United Kingdom and probably many other non‐U.S. services. The objective of meeting the different needs of many services with variants of a single airplane is a very difficult challenge, especially when the number one consideration is affordability.As part of the plan to achieve an affordable solution, the JSF program will be conducted under the DoD's acquisition reform initiatives begun in 1994. These initiatives mandate a new and innovative way of doing business, canceling many government military

4 Risk Management in the Department of Defense

AbstractSince 1995, the Department of Defense (DoD) has increased its emphasis on risk management and changed the approach to its implementation. This presentation briefly summarizes the relationship between risk management and the DoD acquisition reform initiatives instituted by the Department in 1994–95, the evolution of risk management within DoD to its current state, and the contributions of the DTSE&E‐chaired Risk Management Working Group.Despite progress, there is still considerable work to be done to improve the effectiveness of risk management in DoD. This presentation discusses the following future and ongoing initiatives to achieve that end: Institutionalizing risk management as a normal management function in DoD acquisition programs, Implementing risk management, Sharing information, Improving risk management training.

Dynamics of Naval Ship Design: A Systems Approach

ABSTRACT In today's cost‐constrained environment, acquisition reform is a critical component in the design, production, and support of modern warships. This reform includes policies that require system acquisition programs to pursue commercial management and systems engineering practices. The application of Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD), concurrent engineering, open systems architecture, Total Quality Management (TQM), and Integrated Design Environments (IDE) have produced noteworthy commercial successes. Many defense acquisition programs have followed suite, implementing similar process improvements. However, as many commercial industries are finding, there are limits to the success of these improvements.Using the methods of System Dynamics, this paper examines the mechanisms which have lead to program instabilities in cost, schedule, and effectiveness.Modeling of these mechanisms provides a means to study past programs, and assess the potential savings that can be generated with the introduction of process improvements.As a case study, the paper examines the structures and resultant trends that impacted the design and acquisition of DDG 51. General process structures are studied including design interactions, schedule, resources, and allocation. Specific dynamic relationships between cost thresholds, design effort and schedule are studied to show the ability of modeling to capture dynamic trends and predict results. Finally, a “what‐if?” scenario that looks at the application of IPPD is examined.

Acquisition Reform: It All Starts with Design

ABSTRACT Over the past half century, the Navy has utilized a wide range of approaches to warship design. This paper discusses how the lessons learned from past practices and the adoption of dramatically new reforms are revolutionizing the warship acquisition process. Regardless of the reforms, the acquisition process still starts with design.

Acquisition of the Enhanced Maritime Prepositioning Force, MPF(E), Ship

ABSTRACT The paper will describe the streamlined acquisition process involved in the procurement, and conversion, of the first two of three Enhanced Maritime Prepositioning Force (MPF(E)) ships. This program was one of the first programs undertaken within the Government's new policy of Acquisition Reform, which resulted in the development of “performance based” requirements for these ships.This program is notable in that one prime contractor is responsible for the accomplishment of all phases, and that the contractors participating were not shipyards as is usually the fashion for Government ship acquisition programs. Also of note, was that after the conversion contracts were awarded, responsibility for the conduct of detail design, conversion, and operation and maintenance of the ship was transferred from the NAVSEA Sealift Program Office (PMS 385) to the Military Sealift Command (MSC).The first part of the paper will describe the basic mission of the MPF(E) ships, and a description of the origin of the program requirements. The second part of the paper will chronicle in detail the portions of the engineering design and specification development process, which will include descriptions of the unique digital data recording and tracking systems developed by the Government MPF(E) Design Support Team to support the acquisition phases of the procurement. The third and final part of the paper will elaborate on the conversion contract awards and the transition of the program from PMS 385 to MSC.

Implementation of an Initial Cost as an Independent Variable (CAIV) and Total Ownership Cost (TOC) Process in the Navy's Acquisition Center of Excellence (ACE)

Abstract The briefing will present an overview of the beginning processes and toolset for the implementation of CAIV by the Navy ACE, and describe the problems overcome and yet to be overcome in this endeavor. It will describe the place that the processes and toolset take in the larger contexts of Acquisition Reform, and of the Total Ownership Cost initiatives.

The strategic defence review: How much? How far? How joint is enough?

Following a year of hard work, consultation and speculation, the Government's Strategic Defence Review was published on 8 July to general satisfaction, both with its overall content and with the con‐duct that led to it. While there is not much public discussion or debate on defence issues, the SDR does provide a baseline from which a wider discussion of what British forces are ‘for’ in the longer term security environment can take place. Michael Codner here delves into the SDR document and its accompanying essays to raise some issues for future explorations Reviewing the questions raised in the title, he also high‐lights the concept of ‘defence diplomacy’, and looks into the figures of military capabilities, the creation of a Chief of Joint Logistics, acquisition reform and the concentration on people issues. Finally, Michael Codner discusses the emphasis on jointery, pointing to some dramatic consequences that could spring from the process. The SDR, he concludes, opens a new chapter in the debate on Britain's future security needs and capabilities.

Equipment Standardization Under Acquisition Reform

This paper discusses the ramifications of current Department of Defense (DoD) Acquisition Reform policies on Navy equipment standardization initiatives and provides an overview of the objectives and benefits of making "best value" end item selections during the design and construction process. The DoD initiative to implement acquisition reform by changing the processes by which defense system and equipment requirements are defined and communicated to contractors is having significant impacts on equipment standardization programs. The emphasis on the use of non-developmental and commercial-off-the-shelf items (NDIs/COTS) combined with naval ship system and equipment requirements being expressed primarily in performance terms creates the potential for the introduction of large numbers of commercial equipment to the supply support system. Approaches to maximizing equipment standardization efforts in the era of commercial-based acquisition strategies are described and examples of standardization approaches using recent ship acquisitions (Strategic Sealift, LHD 1, DDG 51, and LPD 17) are presented.. Possible approaches for the use of performance-based equipment databases and real-time linkages through the Internet with COTS manufacturers are discussed. Impacts that could change the structure of existing logistics support systems and result in substantial improvements in both cost and performance of shipboard equipment and components are addressed.

MIL-PRF-1540, A Performance Specification for Design and Product Verification of Space Hardware

Acquisition reform has caused the cancellation or conversion of many military specifications and standards. One of the standards targeted for conversion by Air Force Material Command (AFMC) was MIL-STD-1540. The standard provides details for the testing of launch, upper stage, and space vehicles. AFMC requested that MIL-STD-1540C be converted from a standard to an alternative form of documentation. To answer this request, The Aerospace Corporation and Space and Missile Systems Center used an innovative approach to develop a document that retained the value of the original standard. The new document is MIL-PRF-1540 (a Military Performance Specification). MIL-PRF-1540 is intended for use in the Request For Proposal (RFP) instructions for new procurements of space hardware. The value of MIL-STD-1540C was retained by incorporating it into the already existing MIL-HDBK-340. The revised handbook, MIL-HDBK-340A, is referenced by MIL-PRF-1540 as guidelines only.

A‐RCI—The Right Way to Submarine Superiority

ABSTRACTOver the last ten years, there have been enormous changes in the fundamental factors that influence the development and procurement of submarine sonar systems. These changes can be summarized as: 1) the end of the Cold War; 2) a commercial sector technology revolution; and 3) Department of Defense (DoD) realizations that acquisition reforms were mandatory. Against this backdrop is the fact that the acoustic advantage held by U.S. submarines was being eroded by Russian nuclear submarine development and the proliferation of quiet non‐nuclear submarines among countries of concern to the United States. A dramatic, innovative approach to reclaiming acoustic superiority had to be devised. The solution is the Acoustic‐Rapid COTS (Commercial‐Off‐the‐Shelf) Insertion (A‐RCI) program. A‐RCI brings the benefits of the commercial processing revolution and DoD acquisition reforms to the submarine sonar system. It will provide a sonar system upgrade with far more capability than the existing systems have today at a fraction of their cost. This article provides a framework from which to view the significant leap that A‐RCI provides to the Navy, and details both the programmatic and technical sides of the program to help the reader understand the impact A‐RCI will have on the operating forces.

Development of 21st Century U.S. Navy Berthing in the Era of Acquisition Reform

ABSTRACT This paper provides an introduction to the challenges Acquisition Reform presents to the development of new Naval Systems. The U.S. Navy Sit‐Up Berth, developed by a joint NAVASEA 03H1 (Ship Arrangements) & 03R3 (ATC‐Affordability Through Commonality Program Office), provides for the berthing and stowage needs of fleet sailors, ranging from enlisted through junior officers. It provides these significant enhancements: Increased level of habita‐bility—most notably, the ability to sit upright in the berth to read, write, and relax; Increased stowage capacity; Increased commonality and standardization; and cost savings measures designed to reduce the total ownership cost of habitability systems. The Sit‐Up Berth evolved into a mockup by October 1995. This mockup was not only an excellent design tool which helped to ensure proof‐of concept, but it also allowed the Design Team to travel to the Fleet and Marines to gather their input on what the future of navy berthing should look like. The Sit‐Up Berth Design Team employed the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) process to ensure that the “Voice of the Customer” was included in the design, before proceeding with prototype manufacturing in Fall of 1996. The Sit‐Up Berth prototypes were procured through performance specifications, and this paper is to serve as a lessons learned summary from the performance specification procurement process for equipment items.