On DoD

Latest Episodes:

An update on DoD's deployment of MHS Genesis Mar 30, 2023

Show notes

Holly Joers, the program executive officer for Defense Healthcare Management Systems talks with Federal News Network's Jared Serbu and Jason Miller about DoD's ongoing deployment of a new electronic heath record, how the new EHR will work with other federal agencies, and the centrality of data in PEO-DHMS's future mission.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A progress report from the commission tasked with overhauling DoD's 60-year-old budgeting process Mar 10, 2023

Show notes

The expert commission Congress has tasked with proposing overhauls to DoD's planning and budgeting processes is still a year away from delivering its final report. But the Commission on Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution Reform has already gathered a huge amount of information. In its first progress report, the commission says it’s held 27 formal meetings, interviewed 280 people and organizations, and launched research studies on more than a dozen topics.

For an update on the commission’s work, Jared Serbu talked with the panel's chair and vice chair: Bob Hale, a former DoD comptroller and chief financial officer, and Ellen Lord, a former DoD undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Air Force finds ways to bake cybersecurity into weapons systems, and bolt it on where necessary Mar 09, 2023

Show notes

The Air Force believes it's made significant progress toward improving the cybersecurity of its weapons systems -- both brand new ones, and systems that have been fielded for decades.

On this episode of On DoD, Jared Serbu talks with two leaders from the Air Force's Cyber Resiliency Office for Weapons Systems (CROWS) about how the Air Force is working to bake cybersecurity into new platforms, and bolt it onto the ones that have been in the inventory for decades.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How DoD's own budget process keeps the military on the wrong side of the 'valley of death' Dec 21, 2022

Show notes

A new study by George Mason University's Center for Government Contracting chronicles the ways in which the Defense budgeting process has become increasingly inflexible over the last seven decades, how it's shackled technological innovation in DoD, and what to do about it.

On this episode, co-authors Jerry McGinn and Eric Lofgren talk with Jared Serbu about findings and recommendations from their report: Execution Flexibility and Bridging the Valley of Death

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Getting to work on fixes to the Pentagon's broken budgeting system Nov 02, 2022

Show notes

No one particularly likes the way the Defense Department andCongress handle the DoD budgeting process. It’s rigid, inflexible, and veryslow. But the PPBE process, as it’s called, has been encoded into the DNA ofthe Defense bureaucracy for more than 60 years, and turning the ship around isgoing to be very tough.

That’s why there are at least two panels of experts who’llbe working on the problem over the next year or more: one chartered by Congress, andone organized by the American Society of Military Comptrollers. On this week’sshow, Jared Serbu talks with several participants in the latter group:

-- Michael Conlin, former DoD chief data officer and chairmanof the ASMC PPBE Reform Task Force

-- George Kovatch, former DoD deputy comptroller and ASMC taskforce member

-- Maj. Gen. Cameron Holt (ret.), former deputy assistantsecretary of the Air Force for contracting, and member of the ASMC task force

-- Rich Brady, a retired Marine Corps colonel and the CEO ofASMC

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

New initiatives to bring small businesses into the Army technology ecosystem, and a big acceleration of BYOD Oct 12, 2022

Show notes

We start this week’s show with an exclusive interview withGabe Camarillo, the undersecretary of the Army, about several new initiativesthe Army’s launching to incorporate small, innovative businesses into its technology ecosystem.

Later in the program, Kenneth McNeill, the National Guard’schief information officer, talks us about a big expansion of the Army’s pilot tolet soldiers use their personal devices to access Army networks.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

To institutionalize DevSecOps, Navy's Black Pearl aims to 'commoditize the boring stuff' Jul 27, 2022

Show notes

When the Navy Department set about the process of simplifying its journey to modern software development, officials decided it didn't make much sense to reinvent the wheel. So instead of building a software factory and development pipeline from scratch, they borrowed heavily from the Air Force's Platform One initiative and tailored it to the Navy's needs where necessary.

On this week's edition of On DoD, Jared Serbu talks with Manuel Gauto, the chief engineer for Black Pearl, and Bob Stevens, a vice president at Gitlab, the company that provides the development platform Black Pearl runs on.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

One reason Navy ship maintenance is taking too long: workers stuck waiting for supplies Jun 22, 2022

Show notes

Maintenance periods for the Navy’s ships and submarines are taking longer than they should. And there are a lot of reasons for that, but one that the Navy’s only recently discovered is that most of the supplies shipyard employees need to do the work aren’t on hand at the time the work’s supposed to start. On average, less than a third of the material needed for a given maintenance availability is even identified before the work starts.

The Navy’s trying to fix that as part of a broader logistics improvement program called Naval Sustainment System Supply (NSS-S). On this week's show, Rear Adm. Peter Stamatopoulos, the commander of Naval Supply Systems Command talks with Jared for an update on NSS-S -- including how it's tackling shipyard material availability.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Five years into DoD financial audits, progress has stalled Jun 17, 2022

Show notes

The Defense Department and its components are now into their fifth year of having their financial statements independently scrutinized by independent auditors. In the first few years, there were some very promising signs that DoD was on the path to eventually earning a clean opinion, as every other federal agency has already done.

But the DoD inspector general says it’s getting more difficult to find clear signs of widespread financial improvement.

On this week's show, Marcus Gullett, the deputy assistant inspector general for audit, financial management and reporting, joins Jared to talk about the fiscal 2021 audit results, and what the OIG things DoD needs to do to get its financial improvement program back on track.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Va. National Guard's 'Smart Weapon' aims to stop wasting airmen's time on paperwork May 19, 2022

Show notes

Just like innumerable other government agencies, the Air Force runs on paper-based forms that have to be filled out manually, and each one takes time. How much? That was a difficult question to answer until the Virginia Air National Guard’s 192nd Wing saw a chance to do things differently. ' Chief Master Sergeant Joe Young, who’s been leading the testing process, talks with Jared Serbu about the initiative, called HR Smart Weapon.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.