In this episode Rick Dunn, former DARPA General Counsel and pioneer of DoD’s Other Transactions (OTs) authority, talks with Bill Greenwalt, a long time Senate Staffer (SASC) and former Deputy Undersecretary (Industrial Policy), who was instrumental in the creation of Middle Tier Acquisition and bolstering the power and potential of OTs, about the intent to create an alternative acquisition system to better deliver the fruits of DoD’s R&D activities.
“[Acquisition] leadership and the military services are suffering from an incredible level of delusional thinking.” – Bill Greenwalt
This is a terrific discussion between two long time mission-driven professionals who successfully delivered solutions to the Department. However, leadership remains committed to an inept “Soviet-style” acquisition system, while restricting the workforce’s ability to learn and apply the numerous solutions they have been Congressionally mandated to use. The business-as-usual crowd vehemently resists the creation of an alternative to the “costs too much, takes to long” system, characterized by waste and poor performance, thus stifling the DoD’s ability to deliver thoughtful, intelligent solutions in a timely and appropriate manner.
Among the points touched upon: the current system is a relic and outmoded, insider thinking has become delusional, using speed as guiding metric, looking to what has worked and much more…
If you care about supporting the warfighter, delivering timely solutions for national security, and the intersection of federal R&D and its effects on our nation’s future and fate, this podcast is not to be missed!
Thomas Bruneau
Delusional thinking captures the issue perfectly. After 26 years working for DoD at the Naval Postgraduate School, ten of which were in academic administration, it is clear to me that DoD doesn’t know the difference between training (even indoctrination) and education. I simply don’t know to convince anybody “up there” that education is important.