Defense Acquisitions Explained
Updated: January 9th, 2013
The DoD’s Defense Acquisition University created this handy flowchart to clearly show how defense acquisitions work …
View Full Size Chart at Danger Room
And you wondered why the Pentagon regularly makes poor decisions regarding firearms and ammunition? The only thing I have learn’t after three years of blogging about defense acquisition is how little I understand about the process.
( Am I the only one who cynically searched the chart for “Play golf with General” ?)
I founded TFB in 2007 and over 10 years worked tirelessly, with the help of my team, to build it up into the largest gun blog online. I retired as Editor in Chief in 2017. During my decade at TFB I was fortunate to work with the most amazing talented writers and genuinely good people!
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It's not very complicated when it is broken down. You have to realize that this charts starts with a brand new concept that is studied, then developed at lab scale, then tested and proven out. Then you build a larger version and prove that out. It can take years. Most products that the military have are post Milestone C and are in the full rate production/sustainment phases of their lifecycles. When you only focus on that column, it is much more manageable.
Yes, this is the WHOLE process and it is very complicated if you look at all the blocks of detail in all the phases of acquisition.
But, here's the dirty secret: You will only be operating in one small section of this chart at a time! You only need to understand a small chunk or two in its entirety. If you started out doing the F-22 source selection in 1990, you would have become an expert in that section of the chart. The F-35 folks are not doing deep dives into the right side of the chart yet. Give them a few years after they've gone into operations and decide to upgrade...THEN they will have to get smart on that phase of acquisition.