A CASE FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATIVE ACQUISITIONS: LESSONS FROM DEVELOPING AND EXECUTING A SECTION 27 "QUAYLE" AUTHORITY PROGRAM

Acquisition Review Quarterly, Fall, 1998 by Dr. Alan Childress, Lt Col James Larson

This article sets out international cooperative program lessons that were learned from interviewing 29 past and present stakeholders from the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence, U.S. industry, U.S. government agencies, and joint program office personnel. Not surprisingly, the lessons learned suggest that devoting enormous energy and focus toward understanding each other's frames of reference and perspectives; striving to work together; establishing a well-defined, common requirement up front; and continuous senior-level support are factors critical to success in an international cooperative acquisition environment. We conclude with an evaluation of the program's organizational character.

In the spirit of maintaining past Secretary of Defense William Perry's strong advocacy for developing cooperative acquisition programs with our European allies, current Secretary of Defense William Cohen's March 1997 policy directive states, in part, that at the minimum the U.S. military must "leverage U.S. resources through cost sharing and economies of scale afforded by international cooperative research, development, production, and logistics support programs." In this article we present and discuss several lessons learned from an international cooperative acquisition--initiated in 1993--that largely achieves the objectives of Secretaries Perry and Cohen.

We note that D'Agostino (1996) evaluated and compared two multinational weapons development efforts, identifying multinational political and management issues that exacerbated technical and schedule problems. She described risk areas as including:

* number of countries and industries;

* differing and excessive requirements;

* complex cost share and technical work share decisions;

* consortia versus prime contractors; and

* international program office staffing and decision-making.

Our research, more focused in nature, complements, amplifies, and adds to her conclusions through identifying issues related to program establishment and management. While an acknowledged D'Agostino research limitation was the lack of a successful program--she based her findings on a canceled program and a new program--we studied an ongoing program that, notwithstanding schedule challenges, appears successful, despite the real and perceived barriers and risks encountered.

THE PROGRAM

The AN/AAQ-24 Directional Infrared Countermeasures (DIRCM) program is one of the U.S. Special Operations Command's (USSOCOM's) highest priority acquisition programs. This urgently needed aircraft self-protection suite will provide fast and accurate threat detection, processing, tracking, and countermeasures to defeat current and future generation infrared missile threats. DIRCM is designed for installation on a wide range of rotary and fixed-wing aircraft. For USSOCOM, the system will be installed on all of Air Force Special Operations Command's (AFSOCS's) AC-130 gunships and MC-130 Combat Talon aircraft. Growth to counter more sophisticated threats is incorporated into the program by providing a path that allows for direct insertion of a laser-based countermeasure when an all-band laser is developed. These capabilities made the DIRCM system, and others like it, strong candidates during USSOCOM's initial evaluation of the options available.

After careful consideration of the alternatives, USSOCOM initiated the DIRCM program as a cooperative acquisition with the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (U.K. MoD) under Section 27 of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) ("Quayle" Authority). Section 27 of the AECA authorizes the Department of Defense (DoD) to enter into cooperative projects with allies and friendly countries for cooperative research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) or joint production (including follow-on support) of defense articles, concurrent production of a defense article that was jointly developed by the United States and allied or friendly countries, or U.S. procurement of a defense article or service from an allied or friendly country. "Quayle" Authority (Section 2350b) enables DoD to waive certain contracting and procurement requirements in carrying Out contracts under a Section 27 cooperative project.

Prior to program inception, the two countries' procurement and legal staffs developed and negotiated an acceptable Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Given the program's urgency and a strong desire on the part of the participants to establish a firm foundation for the program's success, both staffs felt the best means to keep the negotiations on track was to leave out politically charged items such as cost and work share arrangements. Within the framework of the "Quayle" Authority, the DIRCM MOU allows the U.K. MoD to competitively award a contract: on behalf of USSOCOM. The U.K. MoD owns and manages the contract with the DIRCM prime contractor, Northrop Grumman Electronics and Systems Integration International, Inc., (NGESII) Rolling Meadows, IL.

The DIRCM program is unusual in that it is one of the first cooperative development and production projects undertaken by a U.S. agency wherein the allied country owns the contract with industry. In addition, it may be the first program where the U.K. MoD has led a collaborative procurement with the United States in which the prime contractor is one of the major U.S. defense contractors.