America remains the most innovative nation in the world, so how can the Defense Department spend over $260 billion annually on researching, developing, and buying new weapons, only to have our adversaries outpace us in deploying some of the most advanced systems? The answer lies in our outdated defense contracting process.
The current defense acquisition process was developed in the 20th century and involves multiple stages, from identifying warfighter requirements and budgeting to developing or buying a system. However, each of these stages is riddled with bureaucratic impediments that often take years and have crippled our ability to rapidly develop and adopt new technology.
Simply put, America is at risk because we can’t purchase the right defense equipment at the right time for the right price. It doesn’t grab headlines, but defense contracting and procurement presents a serious challenge to our national security. Adversaries, competitors, extremist groups, and cartels are testing America’s leadership and capabilities like never before. The answer to whether we can meet the moment resides in our will for a major overhaul of government contracting. As military veterans and members of Congress, we are committed to our national security, and that means fixing this critical issue.
As the United States makes the transition from one administration to the next, we must take a moment to look inward: Are we prepared to face a growing list of complex global security challenges? How can we ensure the U.S. is able to respond quickly and effectively to emerging threats while also keeping pace with global technological innovation? Addressing these challenges and maintaining the security of the public will require that we develop a new approach to defense resourcing, one that harnesses the innovation, expertise, and incredible talent of our people.
Look no further than Ukraine as a real-life laboratory, an example of how the warfighter is able to benefit from adopting and deploying battle-tested technology almost in real time. When Russia illegally invaded Ukraine in 2022, many believed its smaller fighting force would be defeated in a matter of days. Instead, it found a way to become more innovative and agile than its enemy, leveraging new commercial technologies such as drones in ways never seen before. In a matter of years, Ukraine has developed one of the most sophisticated drone industries in the world, while simultaneously inventing new doctrines and methods of employment on the battlefield. Ukrainian private sector representatives are often near the front lines integrating and adapting the technology almost in real time as the fight rages. America’s outdated contracting system wouldn’t allow us to do the same.
In the U.S., it can take years, decades even, for new technologies to be approved for use. By the time they are finally approved, these technologies are often obsolete, having undergone years of development just to be irrelevant when the time finally comes to put them to use.
And that’s if they’re even approved, as was the case for the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, the amphibious assault vehicle developed throughout the 1990s and 2000s for use by the Marine Corps. After decades of bureaucratic back-and-forth that cost taxpayers more than $3 billion, it was recommended that this program be canceled. Unfortunately, this was just one example of many in our nation’s long and complicated history of defense acquisition, but it’s a prime example of how taxpayers will continue to be cheated unless we work toward wholesale contracting reform that we both know is possible.
Officials from both parties have consistently sounded the alarm on the matter. In just the last few months alone, House Armed Services Committee ranking member Adam Smith (D-WA) said in a committee hearing that he worried that the DOD is “not able to innovate quickly enough to keep pace with our potential adversaries,” while former Trump official Jerry McGinn recently issued a 54-page report outlining a series of changes that he felt would simplify and speed up the DOD’s acquisition process.
In order to truly make a difference, we must be willing to move beyond deeply entrenched bureaucratic processes and efforts to “people-proof” the way we acquire our weapons. We must employ a bottom-up approach, empowering program managers to make decisions and move rapidly in the face of conflict. Just as we did in the Second World War, America must be ready to respond to every possibility, and that starts with overhauling the defense enterprise before a major conflict erupts.
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While innovation might be the lifeblood of the economy, it is not currently the lifeblood of national security policy, and we risk losing the strategic advantage we have long had over our adversaries in the process. In a world of rising tensions, that is simply unacceptable. We must do everything in our power to prevent the loss of America’s strategic advantage at home and around the world.
Our global situation demands just that, and we will always embrace any way to work with our colleagues, Democratic and Republican, to make meaningful changes to the way that America equips ourselves. We strongly encourage the readers at home to contact their elected representatives and let them know just how important it is that we enact wholesale contracting reform because nothing is more pressing than preparing for the national security challenges of tomorrow.
Jason Crow represents Colorado’s 6th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.