This morning President Obama signed the signed the Weapons Systems Acquisition Reform Act into law (POGO's Executive Director Danielle Brian was there and chronicled the event on twitter). But recent actions in the Senate also demonstrate what may be the biggest challenge for reform--Congress.
At yesterday's Senate Armed Services Committee hearing (of course, I have a twitter feed for that also), Senator John Thune (R-SD) expressed concern about the next-generation bomber's absence from the defense budget (something he's also expressed to Defense Secretary Gates) and asked Air Force Chief of Staff General Schwartz if he knew what the mission needs are for the next-generation bomber. General Schwartz told him that the problem is that the Air Force needs to establish better requirements, which may include making the system less "exquisite"--the code word for unrealistic expectations that will cost taxpayers beaucoup. The Air Force has admitted they defined the mission poorly, but that they have plans to clarify the mission and requirements to field the program soon. But as Air Force magazine reports, apparently not soon enough--Senator Thune has introduced legislation to restore work on the bomber now.
There is a consensus from both government and industry perspectives that containing cost and schedule overruns begins with the requirements process. By telling Congress that they don't have good requirements, the Air Force is essentially establishing don't have a foundation for a good program yet. And Senator Thune is ignoring them.
But, of course, Senator Thune just one of many pushing his pet projects--whether it's Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) chronicling Congress's history of overriding the Secretary of Defense in order to protect his beloved F-22 program or Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) raising concerns about C-17s that DoD has said are unnecessary and unaffordable--it's obvious that defense acquisition reform isn't going to be about rules, but implementation.
-- Mandy Smithberger
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