The Pentagon’s acquisition chief on Thursday made his pitch to lawmakers to support higher production rates for weapons programs, citing it as key to bringing down unit costs and ensuring the department can move more innovative technologies from research and development into manufacturing.
“Historically, we have not been funding high rates of production since the end of the Cold War, with exceptions. And as people often say, we simultaneously want budget stability but also flexibility. And those two are not at odds, but I would argue you don’t get flexibility if you don’t have high rates of production,” Bill LaPlante, under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing.
As HASC eyes beginning work on the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2025, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), the panel’s chair, asked LaPlante what the committee can focus on to boost production as it crafts the next defense policy bill.
“If there’s something you need from us, as authorizers, to facilitate that, please get that language to us. We want to partner with you to help solve this problem,” Rogers said.
LaPlante, who has led the push for multiyear procurement authorities to boost production of critical munitions and help replenish stockpiles of key U.S. equipment, said Congress can help ensure DoD focuses on going after “minimal sustainable rates” with production “to ensure, when the department budgets for things, that there is a minimal level of production that is done because otherwise it’s not going to happen.”
“We have to force the system, for [technology] successes, to go into production,” LaPlante said.
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), ranking member on HASC, said he agreed with LaPlante on DoD’s push to prioritize production at scale, while noting where cuts may be required to ensure the department can afford the manufacturing boost.
“I think you’re right, but one of the things we have to do is understand that the reason we don’t do production at scale is because it’s more expensive in the short term. There’s no big mystery here. So if we’re going to get to production at scale of the things we need, we’re going to have to start making choices. And that’s something we just don’t do. We, in Congress, are just as much to blame on that as anybody,” Smith said.
LaPlante responded he “would say the five programs I would kill tomorrow, but I would lose all my friends that I have,” adding he focuses on “cost per unit” and bringing manufacturing expenses down as capabilities are built in larger quantities.
“That matters. So when [we] meet with some of the companies…and we talk to them about some innovative counter-UAS [capability], we ask them how quickly they can get to these high rates of production. I’m also asking them to plot on the same chart, versus time, what the unit cost does. Because, obviously, as you produce more, the unit cost should come down,” LaPlante said.
LaPlante added DoD plans to fund “a bunch of” innovative counter-drone systems to move into production once the department receives funding from the national security supplemental before Congress and the final FY ‘24 budget.
“The fact of the matter is…if you look at some of the unit costs of some of these counter-UAS interceptors, it’s a concern. And you have to recognize [with] where the UAS situation is going around the world, they’re cheap. And so, obviously, if it takes a million-dollar all-up round to shoot down a $20,000 thing, which cost curve would you [rather] be on?” LaPlante said.
For policies that can help get after higher production rates, LaPlante advocated for the ability to use the same rapid contracting authorities DoD has utilized to support Ukraine more broadly for “other places.”
“When you do un-definitized contracting actions, I apologize for the nerd speak, it allows us to move very fast [and] get people on contract within one or two weeks. We need to use that in other places too without having to definitize the entire contract. It’s in the details, we’ll work with [the HASC] staff on this. That’s really key,” LaPlante told the panel.
Doug Beck, director of the DoD’s Defense Innovation Unit, has offered similar comments noting the speed at which innovative commercial technologies can quickly be delivered to the Ukrainians as compared to established DoD programs (Defense Daily, July 19).
Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) cited DoD’s first National Defense Industrial Strategy (NDIS), released last month, as critical to ensuring the manufacturing capacity is in place to meet DoD’s push for higher rates of production.
“If we’re truly going to be able to meet the moment, we really have to expand investment in all of the human capital that’s required,” Courtney said.
LaPlante said he agreed that boosting production rates will require a “systemic push” to bolster domestic manufacturing capacity.
The new NDIS detailed a range of priorities that DoD said would “catalyze generational rather than incremental change” for bolstering weapons production, to include steps to get after improved supply chain resiliency and enhanced cooperation opportunities with international partners (Defense Daily, Jan. 11).
LaPlante on Thursday also cited the new Joint Production Accelerator Cell (JPAC) he stood up as critical to assisting production expansion efforts across the department.
He has previously described the JPAC as an “operational cell of production experts” that has been working with the services how to expand manufacturing capacity for 155mm ammunition as well as Stinger and Javelin missiles, GMLRS rockets, HIMARS launchers, PAC-3 MSE interceptors and AIM-9X weapons (Defense Daily, Sept. 15 2023).