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The effective use of data science - the science and technology of extracting value from data - improves, enhances, and strengthens acquisition decision-making and outcomes. Using data science to support decision making is not new to the defense acquisition community; its use by the acquisition workforce has enabled acquisition and thus defense successes for decades. Still, more consistent and expanded application of data science will continue improving acquisition outcomes, and doing so requires coordinated efforts across the defense acquisition system and its related communities and stakeholders. Central to that effort is the development, growth, and sustainment of data science capabilities across the acquisition workforce. At the request of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, Empowering the Defense Acquisition Workforce to Improve Mission Outcomes Using Data Science assesses how data science can improve acquisition processes and develops a framework for training and educating the defense acquisition workforce to better exploit the application of data science. This report identifies opportunities where data science can improve acquisition processes, the relevant data science skills and capabilities necessary for the acquisition workforce, and relevant models of data science training and education.

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2023 8(3), 1047-1056 | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction - II. The procurements of European Defence Agency (EDA) - III. Procurement of ammunition related to the war in Ukraine - IV. Procurement of ammunition related to the war in Ukraine - V. Conclusions. | (Abstract) Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shaken up the EU approach to defence matters. Funds have been released to help in providing Ukraine with ammunition. More interesting, the European Defence Agency (EDA) has taken up a more active role in the procurement of defence materials. While these developments are still limited, a partial centralisation of defence procurement at EU level seems to be in the cards.

Shattered Minds is the first book to investigate how American military bureaucracies have let our troops down by failing to upgrade one of the most important pieces of personal safety equipment: the combat helmet. Two longtime employees of North Dakota defense contractor Sioux Manufacturing discovered that the required density of the Kevlar material woven into the netting of combat helmets was being shorted. After bringing their discovery to the attention of management, their boss, rather than cleaning up the illegal practice, accused them of having an adulterous affair. Both employees were fired, leading to a lawsuit and a court judgment in their favor that eventually brought the company's bad-faith practices to light. Around the same time, a separate whistleblower, a retired Navy doctor, was pulled into a bizarre struggle with Army and Marine bureaucracies when he discovered from his Marine grandson that the protective webbing inside the military helmets was inadequate. Why was the military so resistant to upgrading the most essential piece of gear to protect soldiers from traumatic brain injury? Interweaving these two whistleblower stories, Robert H. Bauman and Dina Rasor explain why the military, despite news coverage and congressional hearings on the faulty helmet, continued to do the indefensible. They also suggest how the public, the press, and military institutions can remedy the problem to give U.S. troops effective helmets when serving to protect their country.

Accelerating the transition of new technologies into systems and products will be crucial to the Department of Defenses development of a lighter, more flexible fighting force. Current long transition times-ten years or more is now typical-are attributed to the complexity of the process. To help meet these challenges, the Department of Defense asked the National Research Council to examine lessons learned from rapid technology applications by integrated design and manufacturing groups. This report presents the results of that study, which was based on a workshop held to explore these successful cases. Three key areas emerged: creating a culture for innovation and rapid technology transition; methodologies and approaches; and enabling tools and databases.

Defense planning faces significant uncertainties. This report applies robust decision making (RDM) to the air-delivered munitions mix challenge. RDM is quantitative, decision support methodology designed to inform decisions under conditions of deep uncertainty and complexity. This proof-of-concept demonstration suggests that RDM could help defense planners make plans more robust to a wide range of hard-to-predict futures.

Abstract Large-scale military platform procurement is an essential but understudied component of the policy studies of megaprojects. Procurement decisions in this area, from ships to aircraft, are examples of a specific type of often very expensive purchases which feature complex multi-actor and multiyear processes characterized by high degrees of conflict between actors over purchases and planning horizons. This study of military procurement efforts of this type demonstrates the importance of maintaining policy ‘alignment’ between governments and service providers for successful megaproject procurement to occur and suggests several strategies for accomplishing this that can be applied to similar large-scale but nondefense-related projects, ranging from hydroelectric dams to high-speed railway development.

Abstract This conceptual article discusses moderators of the phases of military innovation and their mutual relationship. It examines how factors such as organisational culture, incentives, risk-taking environments, and resource mobilisation impact the different phases in the innovation process. It finds moderators have varying explanatory values across the innovation timeline, influencing both the emergence and effectiveness of innovations. During the invention phase, critical thinking, organisational culture, and incentives drive the generation of innovative ideas. In the incubation phase, political coherence, industrial structure, and lobbying efforts become crucial for advancing these ideas within the military and political bureaucracy. The implementation phase is shaped by strategic culture, political will, and risk appetite, which determine the broader acceptance and execution of innovations. This leads to a detailed expansion of Horowitz and Pindyck's model of the military innovation process by acknowledging the feedback mechanisms and interdependencies among these factors.

This study evaluates the health of the U.S.-Canadian defense industrial relationship, which is critically important as the U.S. Department of Defense expands the national technology and industrial base. The CSIS study team gathered and analyzed a wide range of quantitative data and conducted interviews with government and industry officials involved with bilateral cooperation on both sides of the border. In addition to looking at top-level history, legislation, policy, and trends, the study team undertook five sectoral case studies highlighting different aspects of the benefits from and challenges facing bilateral cooperation. The study finds that the benefits to both partners exceed what either could obtain solely by relying only on its own national resources. While the overall U.S.-Canadian defense industrial relationship remains sound, the study team identifies a range of recommendations to enhance its value to both partners.

The Department of Defense (DOD) spends over $300 billion each year to develop, produce, field and sustain weapons systems (the U.S. Air Force over $100 billion per year). DOD and Air Force acquisitions programs often experience large cost overruns and schedule delays leading to a loss in confidence in the defense acquisition system and the people who work in it. Part of the DOD and Air Force response to these problems has been to increase the number of program and technical reviews that acquisition programs must undergo. This book looks specifically at the reviews that U.S. Air Force acquisition programs are required to undergo and poses a key question: Can changes in the number, content, or sequence of reviews help Air Force program managers more successfully execute their programs? This book concludes that, unless they do it better than they are now, Air Force and DOD attempts to address poor acquisition program performance with additional reviews will fail. This book makes five recommendations that together form a gold standard for conduct of reviews and if implemented and rigorously managed by Air Force and DOD acquisition executives can increase review effectiveness and efficiency. The bottom line is to help program managers successfully execute their programs.

The procurement decision-making process for complex military product systems (CoPS) has significant implications for military end-users, suppliers, and exchequers. This study examines the usefulness of adopting a fast and frugal decision-making approach for the acquisition of military CoPS. Defence procurement environment is complex. On the one hand, there are uncertainties and severe resource constraints due to regularly changing threat perceptions, limited flow of information about new technologies, and the growing demand to reduce defence related expenses. On the other hand, several stakeholders remain pre-occupied with the demand for ‘zero-error’ technologies. In such a setting, recurrent cost overruns and delays in supply are common in defence procurement programmes, across countries. Taking the illustrative examples of the missile system, fighter jet, and radar system acquisitions in India, we elucidate on ‘optimising’ versus ‘satisficing’ dynamics in the procurement decisions. The paper argues that a fast and frugal decision-making process by relying on judgement, experiential knowledge, and intuitive learning might make procurement processes, adaptively, more efficient. Such an approach would enable a ‘good enough’ technology to be inducted, and improved upon, through regular feedback from the actual environment. The study has implications for policy scholarships on innovation policy instruments under uncertainty.