subject: Dealing With Dod Contracts And Affordability [print this page] Affordability plays a very important role in the contracts which Department of Defense signs for various ventures. New laws have made sure that the DoD acquisition process will be under the governments regulation. The Defense Secretary has also created a $101 billion initiative so that the DoD is able to save a lot of money in the coming years. The move is pretty similar to several others made by the government to reduce expenses. All the military departments have been asked to save $2 billion in 2012, $3 billion in 2013 and $5 billion by 2014. These processes will carry on till 2016 when the entire savings made by the US military should be about $10 billion. The saved amount will be used as a fund for the military pay and also for purchasing weapons.
The amount saved is important because now it is directly related to all the DoD acquisition contracts. The nation is currently facing a monetary deficit in tune of $2 trillion, and that is why the military cannot spend on any defense contract it likes. The mount saved should be the amount spent. An effective savings plan was put forward by Gates, and the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, Ashton Carter, also introduced contract reforms that will increase savings.
The most important change made by carter was that he put affordability of the weapons on the same level as the technical power of the weapon, and this was true for army ground combat vehicles as well as Long Range Strike missiles. The projects that cost too much and give little in return will be scrapped and the running programs will have to reduce their spending on new equipment and maintain the ones that they have.
To decide whether a specific project is viable or not, portfolio capability reviews will be conducted. A project that might be scraped is the Air Force's Multi platform Radar technology program as it is very costly to carry on and has little benefits. Another project that is being watched closely is the army's medium Extended Air Defense System as closing it will save billions of dollars for the army. They are basically looking for projects that cost between $10-$12 million and do not hamper the treasury of the government.
These are only two amongst other policies that have been put into place by the secretary of defense and his undersecretary so that the US military is able to lower its expenses. This is true especially in the DoD acquisition process, while still maintaining our status as the primary army in the world.
