By Marina Malenic
The Defense Department must insist on greater management flexibility in weapons procurement and do a better job recruiting the right people for the job, but the department’s acquisition system is not “totally broken,” outgoing chief arms buyer John Young said earlier this week.
“People run programs, not documents and not processes,” Young said. “We’ve got to run more like a business.”
He was speaking to reporters at the Pentagon just before his successor, Ashton Carter, was sworn in on April 27.
Young said his office had been successful in encouraging the military services to collaborate more on weapons buying, as well as in injecting more competition into procurements by mandating early design prototypes from multiple contractors.
Young said he had few regrets about his tenure as the department’s undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, which began in November 2007. He said acquisition officials must make a greater effort to prevent ballooning military requirements from driving up the cost of weapons. He also lamented not having done more to change the “unfavorable fee structure” of the Army’s multibillion dollar Future Combat Systems modernization effort.
He also cautioned Congress against passing legislation that would limit Pentagon program managers’ flexibility. While a Senate defense acquisition reform bill includes “good concepts,” according to Young, “we need to leave some room for judgment.”
The department also desperately needs to enlarge its acquisition workforce and give program managers more control over requirements for their portfolios, Young said. Making the budget process more flexible would give program managers more discretion, he added.
For example, the expedited effort to field Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected (MRAP) vehicles to Iraq succeeded because money was made available with few strings attached, according to Young. By contrast, the normal budgeting procedure does not allow for that kind of speed and agility, he said. He also used the example of classified military and intelligence programs, which are subject to far less congressional oversight and have fewer firm requirements.
“Many programs on the black side are doing very well, I would say because of and not despite such flexibility,” said Young.
Young said he has not yet considered any new employment offers.