Stephanie Halcrow
A preference for commercial products and services would improve the Department of Defense's ability to put weapon systems in warfighter's hands faster, cheaper, and with more innovative technologies. Commercial buying procedures leverage a competitive marketplace to achieve the best price, avoid sole source situations, and minimize life cycle costs. Procuring a commercial product is the ultimate streamlined acquisition process – one that does not require any creative workarounds.
In May of this year, a group of 47 companies and industry groups in the commercial technology sector, many from Silicon Valley, sent a letter to the President urging the Office of Management and Budget to direct the federal government to prioritize buying commercial products and services over custom developed technology solutions. This group argued that government developed technology solutions are more expensive to build, have higher life cycle costs, are mired in bureaucracy, and often fail even to be fielded. Commercial solutions avoid these problems.
With all these advantages, one might be surprised to learn that the Department of Defense uses commercial buying procedures less now than 15 years ago. A study conducted by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in 2017 found the DoD’s use of commercial buying procedures declined from fiscal years 2007-2016. Changing this trend requires a renewed commitment from the Department to commercial buying procedures and a cultural change within the acquisition workforce.
The typical acquisition program spends a significant amount of time in the pre-production efforts. When the DoD procures a commercial product, the research and development is already completed, the prototypes are already built, and the testing is done. Indeed, according to a 2020 Congressional Research Service Report, the business sector outspent the federal government in research and development for the past 40 years. This means the entire pre-production phase of a product's lifecycle is accomplished by industry before DoD procuring the product. Buying commercial solutions will save the Department time required to field systems and eliminate the risk of the effort failing.
The Department is also assured of getting the best price on a commercial product since it results from competition in the marketplace, one where multiple vendors vie for customers. There is no need for the Department to get involved with cost models or setting acceptable profits with commercial products, which will benefit from helping to avoid sole source situations by making the defense market more appealing to new entrants.
There are examples of the Department's increased interest in leveraging commercial buying options. The U.S. Army's Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV) solution is based on a commercial vehicle with 90 percent of commercially off-the-shelf parts. Choosing a commercial vehicle-based solution should not only accelerate the timeline for fielding the weapon system, but it provides a vehicle to the warfighter with the latest innovations from the commercial marketplace. In the future, when the ISV is fielded and needs repairs, the Army will be able to choose from multiple parts vendors who support the commercial market for the vehicle.
Aerospace is another area ripe for expanding commercial buying procedures. The Department has benefited from purchasing commercial aerospace parts but even now finds itself in challenging sole source situations. The findings of a 2020 GAO report were clear: only 3 of 46 aircraft met the majority of their mission-capable goals in the past ten years, with spare parts shortages being a common problem across platforms. A renewed commitment to prioritizing commercial products and services is the first step to improving this situation.
Buying commercial is not a panacea and will not solve all the Department’s acquisition and sustainment challenges. However, prioritizing procuring commercial products frees up manpower and resources for the weapon systems that have no viable commercial option.
Critics contend a commercial product does not meet all the requirements of the warfighter. There might be some truth in this argument, but a weapon system delivered late that is too costly to sustain because of its reliance on sole sources meets none of the warfighter requirements. Commercial products purchased today deliver immediate, cost-effective, and innovative solutions to the warfighter.
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