bridge between buildings

Bridging the Gap Between Authority and Execution in Transforming the Warfighting Acquisition Workforce

By Colleen Murphy , Jeff Kwastel , Sandi Marino

This paper presents seven recommendations to drive the cultural change required for acquisition reform to succeed where previous efforts have fallen short.

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Numerous studies, policies, and legislative efforts have focused on making the Department of War’s (DoW’s) acquisition system faster and more focused on delivering warfighting capabilities at speed. 

The Administration and Congress have made it a priority to reform DoW’s acquisition system to deliver faster, be less risk-averse, and do better at harnessing leading-edge commercial technology. The effectiveness of these reforms can be amplified by redesigning legacy processes and incentives that would otherwise reinforce a compliance-driven acquisition culture. 

In this paper, MITRE presents seven practical recommendations that can be rapidly implemented to drive the cultural change needed for this round of acquisition reform to succeed where previous efforts have fallen short.