US Defence Acquisition reform: UK implications ?

US Defence Acquisition reform: UK implications ?
April 29, 2010

The US Congress has pushed through legislation, introduced by Congressman Rob Andrews (D-N.J.), Chairman of the Panel on Defense Acquisition Reform, to 'clean up' the US defense acquisition system through four key reforms:

· Building a better accountability system to make sure that we get the most value for every dollar spent on defense acquisition;
· Strengthening the acquisition workforce to give both military and civilian personnel better training, better tools, and more opportunities to improve their performance and produce better outcomes;
· Improving DOD’s financial management system to make it auditable so that American taxpayers know where their money is going; and
· Expanding the industrial base to enhance competition and gain access to more technology.

Of the four reforms the UK has pushed similar ideas via the Grey Report, UK Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) and so forth, although the key issues remain similar. The major issue is ensuring the smaller firms and ideas can get through a bureaucracy developed to deal with major programs pushed by multi-year, multi-million dollar bidding teams which only the prime contractors can support in a peverse form of symbiosis.

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Acquisition, Department of Defense (DoD), Editorial, HASC (House Armed Services Committee), UK Ministry of Defence, US DoD (Department of Defense)