Priorities and acquisition: "your work as program managers has never been more important or anticipated"

Program Manager, Jan-Feb, 2003 by E.C. Aldridge, Jr.

E.C. "Pete" Aldridge, Jr.

Editor's Note: The remarks that follow were delivered by Secretary Aldridge on Nov. 22, 2002, at the PEO/SYSCOM Commanders' Conference, held at the Defense Acquisition University, Fort Belvoir, Va.

I'm very pleased to be addressing you once again. Many of you will perhaps recall our meeting one year ago. It took place only a couple of months after the attacks.

At that time the atmosphere within the Defense Department was one of busy anticipation. We did not know exactly what the future held, but we were certain that there would be accelerations in operations, logistics, acquisition, transformation, and research and development.

All of those accelerations have come to pass--some with greater velocity than others; some with higher urgency than others. But the promise of increased pacing has come to pass for just about all of us.

Your work as program managers has never been more important or anticipated. I have heard it said that only God can forgive Osama bin Laden and his fellow terrorists, but it is the job of our military to arrange the face-to-face meetings.

Today is the 284th anniversary of the violent death of a violent man: the foremost terrorist of his age--the pirate Edward Teach, also known as "Black Beard."

On this day in 1718, Teach was cornered aboard his ship, the Adventure, in the Outer Banks of Carolina. His pursuer was a young Royal Navy Lieutenant who, in a dramatic hand-to-hand fight, cut off Black Beard's head with a cutlass. His headless body was thrown overboard and legend has it that before it sank, it swam around the ship several times.

This is vaguely familiar. Every time we receive another questionable audio tape from bin Laden, it is as if he has taken another lap around the ship.

But in this new age of effects-based operations, having his head on a pike is not intrinsically important. Our troops are arranging the face-to-face meetings on a daily basis. Your job is to give them the tools to do that. And you have done that very well.

Five Additional Objectives

Last year, I told you about the five goals that comprise my agenda as head of defense acquisition. I also told you about some of the things we intended to do over the subsequent year to realize those goals.

This year, I would like to update you on the progress we have made on those original objectives, and let you know about five additional priorities that the Secretary and I believe will best serve the needs of our country and the Defense Department in the months to come.

This summer Secretary Rumsfeld asked me to outline my top priorities for the next 18 months. I did so and he approved them. Let me give you a quick overview of what those priorities are.

Continue Progress with Original Five Goals

The first priority is to continue the progress we have made with my original five goals. As you know, those goals are:

* to improve the credibility and effectiveness of the acquisition and logistics support process;

* to revitalize the quality and morale of the AT&L workforce;

* to improve the health of the defense industrial base;

* to rationalize the weapon systems and infrastructure with our defense strategy; and

* to initiate high-leverage technologies to create the warfighting capabilities and strategies of the future.

Discussing in detail the progress we have made on each of those goals would be a speech in itself. Nonetheless, the accomplishments of our acquisition workforce have been remarkable, and I cannot proceed without at least a cursory rundown of some of our more important ones.

* We have revitalized the Defense Acquisition Board, replacing the assistant secretaries for acquisition from each Military Service with the Service Secretaries themselves. This change better reflects the breadth of issues we face in acquisition matters. It has brought some welcome stability to many programs, while reducing the decision time. And it brings to bear all the resources of each Military Department.

* We have mandated evolutionary, spiral development of weapons systems. This will enable us to field capable equipment more rapidly at lower cost and less risk.

* We are ensuring that programs are properly priced by, among other things, utilizing DoD's Cost Analysis Improvement Group's cost estimates in most cases.

* We have put in place procedures to make sure interoperability is properly considered, and done so earlier in a program's life [cycle].

* We have consolidated and dramatically improved our acquisition education. This was vital if we are to exercise the innovative and progressive management of our technology and systems development efforts. I hope this [PEO/SYSCOM Commanders' Conference] will help us further develop the education concepts we need for the future.

* We have finally established parity between the acquisition of equipment and the acquisition of services in the review process.

* We have implemented "Technology Readiness Assessments" to determine when a program is ready to proceed to the next step in its development.

* We have contributed to the health of the defense industrial base by facilitating additional profitability among contractors.