The Air Force has launched a Bending the Cost Curve initiative with industry to
improve acquisition processes, said William LaPlante, the service's top weapons
buyer. "We want to take on tasks that have measurable outcomes," he
said in a speech on June 13 at the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C. As one
of the first tasks, LaPlante said the Air Force intends to better the up-front
tasks during the "acquisition kill chain," the term he used to
describe the acquisition method from initial concept to production. "There
is a set of things that happen particularly in that early part of acquisition
that all of us are frustrated with, not just the quality of the work that goes
on there … but also just the processes," he said. Among the items to
refine is the quality of the requests for proposal that the service issues, he
said. He also wants to see industry brought in during the period early-on of
development planning, when "we are not sure that we need a program, we are
not sure of the concept, but we need to actually put some heads together and
start thinking about it." (For more from LaPlante's speech, see
Building New Rocket Engine Not Off the Table.) (Atlantic Council
webpage with video of event.)
