Last Friday, Hill Air Force Base got its chance to hear about the Air Force Acquisition Improvement Plan as Lt. Gen. Mark Shackelford brought his roadshow briefing to the Base Theater.
The military deputy, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., laid out the plan brought about after many internal assessments and an outside assessment provided by the Center for Naval Analysis. He pointed out that while many great ideas have been generated in the past it's been tough to get the traction necessary for implementation. Shackelford also indicated the leadership as provided by Gen. Donald Hoffman, commander of Air Force Maaterial Command, is also an important positive contribution in supporting the program to recapture acquisition excellence.
Five-point plan
The plan includes five interconnecting points. The first, revitalizing the acquisitions workforce, is to be accomplished through faster hiring processes and more hires. A previous congressional action smoothed the way for new hires, and Section 852 is providing interns, co-operative jobs, journeymen and funding education to improve workforce competence and skills.
Overall, Shackelford said, the intention is to regrow 9,000 positions in Air Force acquisitions over the next five years. In the immediate future, in FY'11, 149 validated manpower positions are in the budget. Others are to come through contractor-to-civilian conversions and more are projected in the FY'12 Program Objective Memorandum.
The focus of the revitilization will be on contracting, cost estimation and analysis, systems engineering, program management and counsel.
As the general pointed out, "What this calls for is understanding that what we are buying for the warfighter, and what we are putting on contract for the warfighter is actually what the warfighter wants."
He went on to say that, "It is up to us to determine it is obtained by discipline. Sometimes the warfighter asks us for what we cannot deliver and in the past we have bought in and gone after that."
He mentioned the difficulties in having the past contract on the air tanker protested and that protest sustained.
The general talked about the need to look at things from the very beginning in the contract process when projects are initially begun.
Documentation from the very beginning and getting acquisition people into the start of the process were to be a part of addressing that need.
That would go toward supporting the second point of the five point plan -- "improve the requirements generation process."
The third part of the plan addresses the need to instill budget and financial discipline. Baseline bids in the contracts were addressed and the need to set out realistic baseline projections so that the program is executable. This includes setting up what is an appropriate funding level to better set expectations on how to deliver and stabilize that funding through the corporate process.
Some level of risk
Shackelford acknowledged that there were some vagaries in the process and a level of risk. But understanding that risk level is an important part of improving the cost estimates, including competitive prototyping, he indicated.
Fourth is to improve Air Force major systems source selections. While simplifying the process and better reviews are part of this, he addressed configuration steering boards as a way to "deliver up something in the class that is particularly needed, what the performance changes are, what the resource changes are -- what's disconnected in that pathway and getting a chance to work with primarily the Air Staff and leadership and make it work out."
Leading in part to the fifth point -- to establish clear lines of authority and accountability with acquisition organizations.
The documentation at the end of the process has to reflect to a large extent what has happened all the way through. "It has to be done right," Shackelford said. He talked about the need to show what had happened throughout the selection process should any selection decision be protested. In recapturing acquisition excellence, the documentation can become an important way to defend selections and make sure that Air Force acquisition decisions are made not by industry but by the Air Force.
Shackelford addressed briefly the need to move away from the wing, group, squadron and unit structure instead to a system based on directorates, divisions and branches. This move will help to clarify lines of authority and program responsibilities.
He concluded, "You're the folks who are out there slugging it out in the trenches, while leaders, like me, may seem to be off in an ivory tower somewhere. You're doing a great job and you are the folks that are doing it. Keep it up. Now it is up to us to get you what you need and the people you need to do the job."
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