President Biden has not named an acquisition leader for the Pentagon yet. When the Senate confirms that nominee, the next under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment will need to make sure acquisitions at the department can keep up with China’s military modernization.
- Chris Dougherty, Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said the Department of Defense should use agile development to manage processes and must forgo the concept of a perfect strategy for a “good enough” strategy in order to keep pace with China.
- Dougherty argued there are few legal constraints preventing DoD from using more agile development methods and that the problem is more a cultural resistance to change.
- Dougherty said we should transition from strategy development to requirement statements to capabilities much more rapidly in order to avoid falling behind competitors.
