While reforming how the Pentagon acquires new weapons or technology may often seem dry and overly bureaucratic, experts on Monday reminded listeners that it ultimately boils down to saving lives on the battlefield.
“Defense reform matters because peoples’ lives are on the line,” said Sam Zega, the director of strategy and development at Airbus Group. “They ought to have the best equipment we can get them at the best price and sometimes we come up short.”
Peter Lichtenbaum, a partner at Covington and Burling, said that in the past decade of war, American lives were needlessly lost because transferring commercial technology to counter roadside bombs to the military took too long.
This year’s defense policy bill, which will likely get a vote in the Senate this week, includes some reforms to the acquisiton system, including holding service chiefs more accountable for cost overruns or lengthy delays in programs.
The Pentagon is expected to release a report on the defense acquisition system Tuesday afternoon following a morning speech by Frank Kendall, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics.
Analysts said reforming the Pentagon’s acquisition processes is one of the best ways the military can maintain its readiness amid shrinking budgets that are unlikely to get a large boost in the near future.
As Defense Secretary Ash Carter makes building partnerships with Silicon Valley a priority, analysts said agile tech companies like Facebook and Pinterest aren’t working with the Pentagon because they don’t want to, not because they don’t know what the military can offer.
Stephen Rodriguez, a venture partner at Abundance Partners, said Silicon Valley giants know the money that could be made working on large military contracts, but it’s often not worth it because of the slow-moving, difficult-to-navigate contracting process that’s far worse than companies in the commercial sector.
“They have their own warts, but I take that any day over the lengthy DoD process where there may or may not be money at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
Despite the Pentagon’s recent effort to court new players in Silicon Valley, Zega said the Pentagon will still need to rely on conventional defense industry giants for some of its needs.
“You’re not going to go to Silicon Valley and ask them to build you a B-2, it’s not going to happen,” he said. “Some things defense industrial base is better at.”
