The threat of small, cheap drones being militarized overseas is a problem the military must solve faster than the slow-moving, bureaucratic acquisition cycle allows, the Air Force secretary said on Monday.
Deborah Lee James said that just last week, the Air Force was informed in theater that there was a commercial, unmanned system “in the vicinity” and was able to bring it down quickly “through electronic measures,” though she declined to get into specifics.
She also said that earlier this month, a commercial unmanned system killed four people overseas, but that none were Americans.
A video last week showed the Taliban using a camera attached to a drone to film a car bomb attack, and there is wide concern that commercially-bought, cheap drones could have bombs attached to them and be used as weapons.
“It’s an example of something we have to attack quickly,” James said, noting that the bureaucracy in the acquisition system at the Pentagon is not compatible with threats like this. She said it’s crucial for the Pentagon to put its best minds together to figure out how to solve the problem quickly, including using technology that is already available and “packaging it in a different way.”
James was speaking at a Monday event hosted by the Center for New American Security, where all three civilian service leaders talked about a need to get new weapons and technology into the hands of warfighters faster.
Asked for practical solutions to fix the acquisition system, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said his service has often just worked around it by implementing a pilot program instead of a full program of record.
“Get something out in the field fast, succeed fast, fail fast,” Mabus said.
One example is the laser weapon placed on the USS Ponce four years ago. It was done as a six-month pilot program, but is still out there providing valuable information to develop follow-on weapons systems. If the Navy had gone through the process for a full program of record, the laser still wouldn’t be in place, Mabus said.
Army Secretary Eric Fanning said since he was confirmed in May, he’s been focusing on the Rapid Capabilities Office, which gets technology into warfighters’ hands so they can experiment with it and refine it as it’s being developed.
James said departments must prioritize to allow major weapons programs, like the F-35 joint strike fighter, to have enough oversight. She urged the services to focus key reviews and put senior leader attention on big-ticket items, but give more empowerment to program leaders for smaller programs.
Speeding up the acquisition system has been a key priority of Capitol Hill as well. The leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., have both placed acquisition reforms into their chambers’ version of the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act. The changes include things like reorganizing the top leadership of acquisition in the Pentagon and changing intellectual property laws to encourage partnerships with the Pentagon, but it’s unclear what will make it into the final bill, which is still in conference.
Another thing that slows down the process and draws away the attention of senior leaders is budget uncertainty, as the Pentagon wrestles with across-the-board sequestration cuts and year after year of continuing resolutions.
“I didn’t anticipate how much time would be spent on budget because of the instability each year,” Fanning said. “It takes an enormous amount of time of institutional leadership to constantly be thinking through budget based on instability.”
The Pentagon began fiscal 2017 on a continuing resolution after Congress was unable to pass a budget by the beginning of the fiscal year. It extends through the beginning of December, at which point lawmakers will try to pass the budget bills in the lame duck session.
