Camouflage Combat Uniform

The development, testing, and fielding of combat uniforms for soldiers offer acquisition professionals an opportunity to analyze how programs progress through the U.S. defense acquisition system. This case centers on the U.S. Army’s decision to change the camouflage patterns on combat uniforms and equipment for soldiers. The case is broadly applicable to project managers, business managers, engineers, testers, and logisticians involved in project management, while specifically targeting defense acquisition professionals. Emphasis is placed on the development of critical thinking and analysis skills in the areas of stakeholder management, resource management, and decision making in a complex environment. The case is developed in two distinct parts. Part I provides an analysis of the Army’s development of a plan with an increased chance of success in meeting desired objectives. Part II analyzes how the Army decided to change the camouflage pattern on combat uniforms through an informed, knowledge-based process.

Studying Acquisition Strategy Formulation of Incremental Development Approaches

This is a study of the challenges that acquisition professionals confront in formulating the Department of Defense’s preferred acquisition–incremental development. The research surveys acquisition professionals to recommend the components of an acquisition strategy associated with a typical acquisition program undergoing program/project milestone review and approval. This work provides insights into how program managers use typical programmatic decision inputs (requirements, technology maturity, risk, urgency, and funding) to formulate the components of an acquisition strategy. The results suggest that acquisition policy should perhaps require a justification for most programs of record if an incremental development approach is not planned. Adoption of the recommended acquisition policy changes would make the defense acquisition system more responsive to the warfighter by fielding improved capability as quickly as possible and reducing risk of the eventual delivery of the full required capability.

Applications of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS): A Delphi Study Projecting Future UAS Missions and Relevant Challenges

Over recent decades, the world has experienced a growing demand for and reliance upon unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to perform a broad spectrum of applications to include military operations such as surveillance/reconnaissance and strike/attack. As UAS technology matures and capabilities expand, especially with respect to increased autonomy, acquisition professionals and operational decision makers must determine how best to incorporate advanced capabilities into existing and emerging mission areas. This research seeks to predict which autonomous UAS capabilities are most likely to emerge over the next 20 years as well as the key challenges for implementation for each capability. Employing the Delphi method and relying on subject matter experts from operations, acquisitions and academia, future autonomous UAS mission areas and the corresponding level of autonomy are forecasted. The study finds consensus for a broad range of increased UAS capabilities with ever increasing levels of autonomy, but found the most promising areas for research and development to include intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) mission areas and sense and avoid and data link technologies.

Defense Acquisition, Public Administration, and Pragmatism

This chapter explores the relationship of U.S. defense management to public administration. It argues that public administration, as a field of study, plays a minor role in defense acquisition, because acquisition has unique characteristics that separate it from the mainstream of the field. The tenuous connections between acquisition and public administration have led to an issue of academic legitimacy in that the discipline has failed to respond to the needs of acquisition professionals. The chapter then presents a discussion and illustration of philosophical pragmatism as a potential contribution of administrative theory to acquisition practice, and it concludes with thoughts on the potential for acquisition to adopt pragmatism as a guiding way for thought and practice.

Defense Acquisition, Public Administration, and Pragmatism

This chapter explores the relationship of U.S. defense management to public administration. It argues that public administration, as a field of study, plays a minor role in defense acquisition, because acquisition has unique characteristics that separate it from the mainstream of the field. The tenuous connections between acquisition and public administration have led to an issue of academic legitimacy in that the discipline has failed to respond to the needs of acquisition professionals. The chapter then presents a discussion and illustration of philosophical pragmatism as a potential contribution of administrative theory to acquisition practice, and it concludes with thoughts on the potential for acquisition to adopt pragmatism as a guiding way for thought and practice.