Can the Current Acquisition Process Meet Operational Needs?

Since the 1950s the acquisition system has been modified and changed many times to clean up the system and prevent fraud, waste, and mismanagement. However, the system had become too big, cumbersome, and unresponsive to meet operational needs. In 1985 the President's Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management, the Packard Commission, was established to make recommendations for new reform. In June 1986 the commission published its final report that made sweeping recommendations. Those recommendations were implemented by the National Security Decision Directive 219 in April 1986, the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act in October 1986, and the Defense Management Report in July 1989. Since then, many changes have occurred that have improved operational perspective and jointness in acquisition planning, linked national security objectives to system acquisition, and improved acquisition management. The changes that have taken place so far have not solved all of the problems in the acquisition system, but they have had a major impact in improving system and ensuring that a new weapon system will meet operational needs.