Can’t the U.S. Air Force Be Trusted to Buy a Few Helicopters?

James Hasik

Security,

Decisions about competition for the LRV and UH-1N show why McCain’s initiative against USD AT&L really matters.

Senator John McCain of Arizona, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wants to blow up the Pentagon’s Under Secretariat for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (USD AT&L). More specifically, his committee’s writing of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2017 would cleave that office into two new under secretariats, for research and engineering (USD R&E), and management and support (USD M&S). Over the weekend, Aaron Mehta and Joe Gould of Defense News reported that the bill is probably intended to let the military departments handle “basic acquisition programs” while the defense department concentrates on bringing forth big technological innovations. A short thought experiment about two recent acquisition decisions may indicate what profound changes to materiel this change in organizational structure could bring forth.