Acquisition Talk

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Event: Securing the MRAP Feb 09, 2022

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My colleague James Hasik recently published his newest book, Securing the MRAP: Lessons Learned in Marketing and Military Procurement. In this episode of the Acquisition Talk podcast, we listen in on an excellent event hosted by the Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University. It starts with a conversation between Senior Fellows Stephanie Halcrow and James Hasik. Afterwards, Stephanie moderates a panel discussion with: - Susan Alderson, the statistician who sparked the successful drive to adopt the MRAP in the Marine Corps - Damon Walsh, a former MRAP marketing executive at Force Protection Inc. - Paul Mann, the first MRAP program manager The MRAP, of course, was an urgent program in the mid-to-late 2000s that addressed the IED threat. Basically, it is a ground vehicle with advanced suspension, greater ground clearance, a v-shaped hull, and kevlar panels that make it survivable against enemy IEDs. Even though the basic problem had been solved in South Africa many years before, the interesting part is how this solution was not immediately obvious given all the different ways you can defeat IEDs. Many different groups of people -- some of which didn't even know each other -- contributed to the genesis of the MRAP program, and then rapid scaling to 5,000 vehicles in less than 19 months after the JUONS requirement. It is truly an amazing story, and the event really brought out some great lessons learned: - Interservice rivalry can incentivize adoption - Don't break too many rice bowls - DoD must improve its market research capabilities - Experiment and test before working on requirements - Ignore those who say you'll fail - Negotiating with suppliers on a DX rated contract

NatSec News: Feb. 8, 2022 Feb 08, 2022

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Eric Lofgren and Matt MacGregor chat about the week's newsworthy headlines the world of military acquisition. This podcast was produced by Eric Lofgren. You can follow us on Twitter @AcqTalk and find more information at https://AcquisitionTalk.com.

NatSec News: Feb. 1, 2022 Feb 02, 2022

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DoD, Silicon Valley & American Dynamism with Katherine Boyle Jan 27, 2022

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Katherine Boyle joined me on the Acquisition Talk podcast to dive deeper into her stark warning on DoD's relationship with tech investors. "After five years of DOD saying 'we want to work with the best startups', we have, at most, two years before founders walk away and private capital dries up. And many, many startups will go out of business waiting for DOD to award real production contracts." Katherine is a general partner at a16z, a venture capital firm, previously having left General Catalyst and the Washington Post before that. Her focus is on American Dynamism, or firms trying to solve major social problems with technology. "This is not govtech, this is not technology that's selling into government to make incremental changes." For example, Anduril is a defense startup in her portfolio. It doesn't respond to an approved requirement but rather develops the capabilities in AI/ML, sensor fusion, and networking that it believes will revolutionize military operations. In the episode, we touch on: How to get away from "spray and pray" investment mentality Why software is the most important tech innovation in history How revoking the draft changed the American character Prospects for defense software factories What needs to change in the culture of acquisition Katherine argues that DoD has done an excellent job opening the front door to new firms who can win $50K or $1M dollar contracts. But it isn't proven that the front door can lead to recurring revenue if the technology succeeds. DoD doesn't need to award large production contracts to every company, it needs to double down on the very best companies with a proven track record. Awarding $20M to a handful of companies over the next year will continue to give promise to the idea that new entrants can succeed. Investors and entrepreneurs will respond. One of the fears is that new entrants are losing contracts to the big primes despite delivering better technologies. The acquisition system rewards officials for working with big primes who can navigate the process. "If we had that system in Silicon Valley," Katherine said, "IBM would still be the number one company." She believes all the authorities are there for acquisition officials to start awarding production contracts to the best new entrants -- those that can deliver product in five days rather than the five years it takes a prime. The culture, however, will have to change, and this gets into a long history of how attitudes toward public service have changed since the 1970s. This podcast was produced by Eric Lofgren. You can follow us on Twitter @AcqTalk and find more information at https://AcquisitionTalk.com.

NatSec News: Jan. 24, 2022 Jan 25, 2022

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NatSec News: Jan. 17, 2021 Jan 18, 2022

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NatSec News: Jan. 10, 2022 Jan 11, 2022

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NatSec News: Jan 5. 2022 Jan 06, 2022

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Event: Other Transactions Authority Jan 05, 2022

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In this episode of Acquisition Talk, we listen in on a recent event on Other Transactions Authority hosted by George Mason University's Center for Government Contracting. Many thanks to my colleague Stephanie Halcrow for moderating a panel that included Stan Soloway, who recently authored a report on the progress of OTs, Wes Bennett, Director of the Contracts Management Office at DARPA, and Dan Fick, Vice President of SAP. In case you've been asleep at the acquisition wheel the past few years, Other Transactions (OTs) allow select government agencies to flexibly contract without all the rules found in the Federal Acquisition Regulation that can make it impossible to reach startups and nontraditional contractors. Actually, as panelist Stan Soloway noted, OTs are not technically "contracts" because the term has a specific meaning in the FAR. They use the term "agreements" and are signed by "agreements officers." But, in the general commercial sense, OTs are binding contractual documents. Although OTs were invented around 1958 for NASA, they were expanded for use in DoD in 1989 with 10 USC 2371. It seemed by the time Future Combat Systems used OTs and was terminated in 2009, the authority reached its nadir. With the FY 2016 NDAA, OTs were refreshed, adding the ability to transition a competitive prototype OT into production (up to $500 million). That signaled Congressional intent for increased adoption.

NatSec News: Dec. 27, 2021 Dec 28, 2021

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