How To Fix Acquisitions

When it comes to the defense acquisition process, change seems to be the only constant. In fact, we change things often enough that it's pretty difficult to attribute any improved (or degraded) results to a particular change, because by the time the weapon system is delivered, the policies and procesess have changed a five or six times (or more). Hard to get any correlation going with that much flux.

Of course, if we'd just shorten program timelines we'd be able to finish projects before the process changed excessively and thus could measure the impact of our "improvements," but that's a topic for another day.

Here's the thing - all too often the changes are blatantly superficial and have virtually no impact on the actual management or engineering of weapon systems. It's bananas but it's the sort of behavior the system rewards. Anyway, that observation inspired this sketch, originally intended for the 13 Theta series for Defense AT&L magazine. I figured I'd post it here instead.

For those who aren't familiar with the structure of the defense acquisition process, it involves moving through a series of milestones. In 1996, we used Milestones O, I, II and III. In 2000 it changed to Milestones A, B and C. And now here's the gag:

What would I recommend doing instead? Focus on honing decision-making skills and using the FIST approach to rapidly deliver affordable systems.

Spoke Too Soon?

In an earlier post, I mentioned a report that the F-22 Raptor might finally see some action over Libya, after watching Iraq and Afghanistan from the sidelines for five years. Alas, according to the Air Force Times, that seems to not be the case.

One might wonder why we wouldn't use "the most capable air superiority fighter" to accomplish a mission or two over Libya. Say, accompanying B-2's on their bombing runs... which is one of the things the F-22 is supposed to do, right?

Well, the article points to the fact that it can't communicate well with other aircraft as a big reason for not using it. Also, that it can't actually hit ground targets very well. So the Libyan Air Force's strategy of staying on the ground looks like a pretty effective counter-measure against the Raptor.

Other than its inability to communicate with the good guys or to make the bad guys go boom, it's a fine, fine aircraft. Technically, the only thing wrong with it is that it apparently doesn't support any of our actual mission needs.

Now, I'm not an operations guy. I'm not even an airplane guy. I really don't know much about what sort of capabilities this country requires when it comes to jet fighters. But I am an acquisitions guy and a techie. And I know the objective of acquisitions & system development is to deliver affordable systems that support mission needs. From where I sit, it seems like we've spent a whole lot of time & money developing a system that doesn't contribute to any of the various fights we're currently engaged in. Where I come from, that doesn't count as success.

Might the Raptor contribute to some future mission? Of course. And I can't say for sure that these hypothetical future scenarios aren't actually right around the corner. All I know is that given current operational and fiscal realities, the Raptor looks like a strange investment. I might even say an unfortunate investment. This isn't hindsight - I've been saying this sort of thing for a pretty long time now. Frankly, even if we start using it 10 years from now, I'm not sure that would quite make up for the long trail of non-contributions.

Is there a lesson to learn here? Maybe something about the wisdom of shortening our development timelines, using the budget to constrain the design and focusing our requirements on a prioritized set of real-world needs. The opposite of the FIST approach - spending decades and billions to develop a multi-role system that doesn't support any of the three major operations we're currently performing - leads to situations like the Raptor.

Someone once told me that the FIST approach would never have produced a weapon system like the F-22. My answer to that: precisely!

Ask Your Question

Here's a special, exclusive offer just for you, the RogueProjectLeader Reader:

You are personally invited to send me your questions about innovation, technology development, the FIST (Fast, Inexpensive, Simple, Tiny) method, or anything else you may want to ask about.

I'll make up some weird answer and post the whole shebang right here, on RPL!

Submit you question in the Comments section, or drop me an email to my gmail account (The.Dan.Ward).

Leadership

I keep coming back to my post titled The Effectiveness Of Signs. It's one of my favorite posts on this blog. I like the way it blends design principles with an important aspect of leadership - namely, doing stuff.

Now, the topic of Leadership-with-a-capital-L generally turns me off (I blame John Maxwell's horrible books for that - and no I'm not linking to them). But this blog is titled Rogue Project Leader, so I guess I'm not completely against the topic.

Anyway, several years ago I sat in the office of a very high ranking person. In the course of our conversation, he expressed his frustration over his inability to get the people who ostensibly worked for him to do what he asked them to do. I was part of a small  bureaucratic spetsnaz team that he had put together for the purpose of undermining the Defenders Of The Status Quo who were ignoring his direction. That conversation, and his frustration, have haunted the back of my mind ever since.

Now, with the perspective of some years, I wonder if maybe he was a bit like the sign maker in my earlier post. His sign was clear and unambiguous... but still the trashcan was not where it was "supposed to be." It's not a perfect analogy - I'm not saying he posted his sign behind the door or was asking anyone to put the trashcan in an inconvenient place. But clearly there were divergent priorities and interests. And just like with the trashcan story, the power lay in the person who actually moved the can.

F-22 in Libya?

It looks like the F-22 might finally fly its first combat mission, in support of the Libyan No Fly Zone.

The Raptor was declared operational in Dec 2005, but so far it hasn't flown any combat missions. There's talk now about possibly using it to take down radar sites in Libya... that is, if there are any radar sites left after the US Navy's bombardment with their Tomahawk missiles. Also, the French, British and Canadian Air Forces already have fighters in the air over Libya, so if the Raptor is going to see any action it's going to have to move quickly.

One might wonder whether the F-22 is really the best platform for doing this kind of work, or if perhaps Tomahawks and Rafales are sufficient.

On a completely unrelated note, check out Krog's New Weapon, a sci-fi story I published in Defense AT&L magazine in March, 2008. Why? Oh, no reason...

Be A FAN!

There's no excuse for why it took so long to do this, but I finally made a FIST page on Facebook. It's called the FIST Acquisition Network (FAN), because Dan's Acquisition Network (DAN) was just too self-referential. Stop on by and click the Like button to clip in.

My plan is to use the FAN page to announce upcoming events and provide links to new articles & blog posts - stuff like that. But it's also a place for people to ask questions, meet other people who are trying to do this FIST thing.

See you on Facebook!

Welcome IC'ers

Just a quick shout out to all the new friends I met at the DIA Acquisition conference in Miami this week (and to the old friends too, of course). It's encouraging that so many of you said the FIST concept resonates with you and what you're trying to do. I hope you came away with some new ideas you can use.

Looking forward to continuing the conversation...