The Pentagon acquisitions bureaucracy is broken. Here’s the plan to fix it

Pentagon The procurement system was held by US forces supplied with some of the most famous military hardware in the history of combat Humvee to the top Apache helicopter. But according to the main technological officer of the army, he was also trapped in a cycle of outdated thinking and swollen paperwork that could interfere with the US in the next conflict of great strength.

“We still have just over 100,000 humves,” Alex Miller, Military Main Technology Officersaid Fox News Digital, speaking of a inherited vehicle that was first presented in the 1980s. “Although during the global war, we saw a change in threat against terrorism.”

Miller pointed to the bomb roads, or IED -ove, who devastated the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, as a turning point. “There were many reports that if Humvee overturned over IED, it was simply not a good situation for soldiers,” he said.

Still, the army continued to buy Humvees, even as she was in a hurry to survive vehicles like MRAPSA stryker. That, Miller said, points out the bigger question: not one failure of acquisition, but a problem in the system in the way the army operates.

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“We play according to the same rules after the Cold War that told us if you have a request, you will continue to buy it,” Miller said. “Since the requirements of the process and the process of acquisition and the terrain process have never changed, we are in this puzzle where we still have just over 100,000 humves.”

Despite the introduction of newer vehicles such as JLTV – designed to replace Humvee with better armor and mobile – Miller says that the rapid pace of technological changes and threats in the emergence left even those newer systems at risk of becoming outdated.

“Although we continue to buy them and have a budget,” he said, “that may not be the right answer.”

Miller threw out Army plans In order to resolve the decade in Pentagon, bringing new weapons systems from the Battlefront proposal phase before the technology made them outdated-as the Minister of Defense Hegsetth issued a new memorandum that directed the overhaul about the army acquisition process.

“In order to build a lean, more deadly force, the army must transform itself with an accelerated pace, giving up out of obsolete, superfluous and ineffective programs, as well as restructuring headquarters and acquisition systems,” Hegsetth wrote.

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Fight with today’s war with yesterday’s tools

Miller warned that some of the army weapons platforms could not be suitable for the Battalion Fields of the Future.

“Ukraine didn’t ask for any apache,” he noticed. “Our Apaches are a great platform. It’s amazing. But … looking at more drone systems is probably the way.”

He also asked questions about the usefulness of inherited artillery platforms like Paladin Howitzer. Although the artillery dominates the war in Ukraine, the army has largely supplied more Paladin to meet the “minimum maintenance rate” – not because commanders are looking for them.

This kind of bureaucratic inertia, Miller suggested, is exactly what to make up for.

In an effort to modernize faster, the army now reduces bureaucratic and rewriting regulations. According to the new initiative called “Transforming in Contact”, the military leaders sent the writers of the request to the field to live and train together with soldiers, collecting real -time feedback, instead of making documents at 300 pages in Washington.

“Instead of trying to define what kind of things they need, how would it be that we just listen to them for a change?” Said Miller. “We started that last year … And that was wild successful.”

Units moving at the Center for Training for Common Ready at Fort Johnson, Louisiana, will be equipped with some of the most advanced equipment in the military next week, including autonomous infantry vehicles built with partners from Silicon Valley, Advanced Battery Technology and hundreds of drones.

“All because our leadership has just said, go right, instead of trying to confirm the frames,” Miller said.

According to Miller, documentation about things like the next generation unmanned air vehicles was demolished with between 200 and 300 pages to 10.

In other cases, modernization is not always needed, according to Abigail Blanco, a defense expert and a professor at the University of Tampa.

Until a few years ago, when he was finally retired, one of the main scouting systems in the war against terrorism was RQ-4 Global Hawk.

The RQ -4 had an impressive capacity of a useful load of £ 3000 and advanced reconnaissance capabilities – with huge costs. Each was originally needed to cost $ 20 million, but ended $ 220 million per unit.

“If you look at the aircraft reports, they have repeatedly stated that instead of [RQ-4]They preferred the U-2 spy plane, which, to be clear, is a relic in a military sense. It’s from the Cold War period. And so it is not always clear that the modernization piece is desirable. “

Battle within Beltway

Some lawmakers and defense officers initially resisted encouraging the army to simplify systems.

“The supervisor pushed the supervisor very strong. Some parts of the hill were pushing very strongly,” Miller said. “But we have started a really aggressive game on Earth. … We are no longer looking for money. We ask us to spend dollars of taxpayers.”

The problem, according to Blanc, Congress has long continued to calculate the equipment beyond its point of usefulness.

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“If you are a selected representative and your district produces Humvees or tanks, you have a very strong interest in ensuring that this technology is still produced, whether it is operationally needed.”

In the end, Miller said, the acquisition reform is not about cutting the corners – it’s about going up with an opponent who doesn’t care about bureaucracy.

“The environment, the threat and reality change so quickly,” he said. “We have permission to be only ruthless in working with commercial entities … and understand the faster we can get in the hands of the soldiers.”