The Pentagon has released the latest iteration of its Better Buying Power initiative. Frank Kendall, DoD’s top acquisition official (Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics), announced the release of Better Buying Power 3.0 on September 19th.
The Better Buying Power 3.0 initiative (BBP), now released for comment, is the latest iteration of the Pentagon’s effort to better align the acquisition practices of the worlds largest purchase with the end goals of the organization. The previous iterations focused policy and procedure on how acquisitions should be executed. 3.0 starts to turn towards better aligning the department’s acquisitions with the department’s needs, namely getting new gear and technology into the hands of the war fighter faster.
Top Defense officials, including Secretary Chuck Hagel, have pointed to the erosion of the technological gap between the U.S. and our adversaries; China being one that has gotten a lot of press lately. With that as a backdrop, BBP 3.0 focuses on better aligning strategic spending on R&D that will maintain or increase that gap. No small feat in an era where low cost internet technology can be weaponized to attack strategic infrastructure or steal key intellectual property.
The BBP 3.0 is currently out in draft and DOD is soliciting feedback from Congress, industry, academia and military customers. With many stakeholders from all angles taking shots, it is sure to go through some important revisions. As practitioners and users of BBP we should all be interested in the direction it takes. This white paper released by Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (ATL) is a good place to start and you can download it here.