William C. Greenwalt, Samantha Clark, and Greg Little
A draft memo from the Secretary of Defense on how to buy software could finally herald the Pentagon’s entrance into the information age. Or, like so many other acquisition reforms of the past, it could just as easily be overtaken by inertia and founder on the rocks of the bureaucracy. The stakes for getting this right couldn’t be higher. Software offers perhaps the most compelling way to close current and future gaps between the United States and its adversaries.
Sixty years after the pronouncement of Moore’s Law, the Department of Defense still struggles with the implications of unfettered advances in commercial technology. Though the Pentagon has historically been a research and development leader, recent decades have seen federal acquisition processes and culture lag far behind commercial advances in information technology. As commercial software continues to transform global business, the slow government rate of adoption risks holding back our national security. A change in mindset and approach is urgently needed to supercharge defense by taking advantage of the revolutionary changes occurring in the commercial market.
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