US DoD Re-organizes Bureaucracy to Make Military Capabilities More Lethal

The US Department of Defence has broken down the office of the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics into two entities, each headed by an undersecretary -one for research and engineering and the other for acquisition and sustainment.

The change is designed to make military capabilities more lethal, encourage partnerships within the department and with allied nations and to ensure acquisition processes fulfil the needs of service members now and in the future, Deputy Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan  said on August 2 in an article posted on the US DoD website.

DoD has been spending too much time on the here and now and needs to invest instead in the systems that will maintain the U.S. military lead in the years ahead, defense officials said. Not doing so would enable countries like Russia and China to gain parity.

“The DoD research, engineering, acquisition and sustainment organizations and processes must be sources of competitive advantage that ensure the warfighting superiority of U.S. forces around the globe,” the report said.

Speed is important, Shanahan said. Developing a capability and getting it in the hands of service members is key to the process. “The way I think about speed is like baseball in the farm system,” he said. “You take a certain talent and [see] how quickly can you get it to the big leagues. Our whole system has to be about the same thing.”