Market and contractor factors affecting rapid acquisition strategies

Abstract

The Department of Defense (DoD) is experimenting with acquisition strategies intended to deliver new capabilities in cycle times of 2 to 5 years. These are executed in a market of few sellers, limited procurement quantities, and constrained budgets. Defense contractors respond by developing, producing, and supporting products. This research analyzed selected publicly‐released acquisition program data from 2007 to 2018. Quantitative methods identified significant factors and analyzed how acquisition strategy decisions and market conditions are related to these factors. Outcomes important to the government such as shorter cycle times are shown to be statistically associated with early government strategy decisions such as agile software development, and intentional use of commercial technology. Defense contractor responses within this market are related to government programmatic factors and not to reduced cycle times.

LEAPing Ahead – The Space Development Agency's Method for Planning for the Future

“…In recent years, the DoD has emphasized rapid acquisition timelines -less than five years from program approval to delivery, with less than two years for urgent needs (Etemadi & Kamp 2022). Achieving these objectives requires reducing the cycle time for a system, defined as the time from program start until the system is declared to have initial operational capability (Etemadi & Kamp 2021). The actual cycle times for Major Defense Acquisition Programs (MDAPs) from 1997 to 2015 averaged 6.9 years with a median time of 7.6 years, both of which are above the planned values (Kendall 2016).…”