Acquisition Corps

The United States Army Acquisition Corps (AAC) is the officer / NCO corps of the United States Army Acquisition Workforce (AAW), a branch which includes civilians, officers, and NCOs.96% of the Army Acquisition Workforce are civilian
/ref>Dr. Bruce D. Jette, ASA(ALT) (April 30, 2019) From the AAE: Building the Army Acquisition Team
New Army Talent Management system: proposals for getting PhD-level officers into AAW The Acquisition Corps is composed of army officers who serve in acquisition, a specialized form of product development, fielding, and support and Noncommissioned Officers who specialize in Contracting, Level I Program Management and Purchasing.ASA(ALT)br>Weapon Systems Handbook 2018
Page 32 lists how this handbook is organized. 440 pages.
*By Modernization priority
*By Acquisition or Business System category (ACAT or BSC). The Weapon systems in each ACAT are sorted alphabetically by Weapon system name. Each weapon system might also be in several variants (Lettered); a weapon system's variants might be severally and simultaneously in the following phases of its Life Cycle, namely — °Materiel Solution Analysis; °Technology Maturation & Risk Reduction; °Engineering & Manufacturing Development; °Production & Deployment; °Operations & Support
*ACAT I, II, III, IV are defined on page 404Andrew Gonzalez and Stephen Rodriguez (28 Jun 2021) Nothing left in the tank: The state of the Pentagon's supply chain
/ref>Mandy Mayfield (7 October 2020) JUST IN: Pentagon to Streamline Software Development
AAF (Adaptive acquisition framework) now adheres to the updated DoD 5000.01 policy approved in September 2020 by Ellen Lord's lead, the Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist These officers begin their careers in the other branches of the army for eight years, after which they may elect the Acquisition branch as their career as assistant program managers (APMs), program managers (PMs), and program executive officers (PEOs). Viv Olo (28 Jan 2021) Capability Statement for Government Contracting
Capability: 'the ability to perform or achieve some desired outcomes' (A PEO can be civilian.) The Noncommissioned Officers (NCOs) are reclassified in the Army Acquisition NCO Corps after serving 7-10 years in their respective enlisted career management fields, and serve primarily in the Army Acquisition Career Management Field - 51 and (MOS) 51C. 4% percentage of the Army Acquisition Officers serve among the 40,000 members of the army acquisition workforce, 6% in MOS 51C - Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Contracting Noncommissioned Officer (Active, Reserve and National Guards), and the remainder 90% percentage consist largely of Department of the Army civilians.

The director of the Army Acquisition Corps, currently a lieutenant general, also serves as principal military deputy (PMILDEP) to the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology or ASA(ALT). The PMILDEP is also director of combat systems for Army Futures Command (AFC), by Army Directive 2018-15.Army Directive 2018-15 U.S. Army Futures Command Relationship With the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics and Technology)
and DCS G-8, 27 August 2018
The Office of ASA(ALT) has a direct reporting unit (DRU) which is denoted the U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center (USAASC). An office within USAASC, DACM ensures the professional development of the Acquisition Workforce as well as the Officers / NCOs corps itself, including the recruitment of suitable Captains, Majors, Staff Sergeants and Sergeant First Class into the pipeline of courses at the US Army Acquisition Corps School of Acquisition Excellence, Huntsville, AL and Defense Acquisition University (DAU). DAU certifies the 150,000-member Defense Acquisition Workforce, including the Army's Acquisition workforce of 40,000 civilians, officers, and NCOs (MOS 51C).

History

The Acquisition Corps was instituted in 1989 by Chief of Staff Carl Vuono. Vuono's goal was to professionalize the Acquisition workforce. In 2006 the Army Acquisition NCO Corps was approved by the Department of the Army and instituted by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology)/Army Acquisition Executive by the Honorable Claude M. Bolton Jr.

During the post-9/11 period, the US Army was preoccupied with counter-insurgencies, leaving its competitors free to develop new weapon systems. In order to address this need for modernization, the Army Futures Command (AFC) was instituted in 2018. AFC's approach to modernization is to clarify the engineering of a candidate system before it becomes a Program of Record in the Acquisition process. "Our new approach is really to prototype as much as we can to help us identify requirements, so our reach doesn't exceed our grasp. ... A good example is Future Vertical Lift: The prototyping has been exceptional." —Secretary of the Army Mark EsperSydney J. Freedberg Jr. (24 January 2019) Bell V-280 Flies 322 MPH: Army Secretary Praises Program
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The Army Requirements Oversight Council (AROC) is an advisory council to the Army Chief of Staff, who chairs AROC. AROC is a mechanism which can authorize the acquisition process. AROC brings the budgeting, requirements and acquisition circles into a venue for making some key decisions.Research, Development, and Acquisitio
AR 71–9 (2009) Warfighting Capabilities Determination
Aug 15, 2019 update. Or se
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/ref> Research, Development, and Acquisition (22 Jul 2011) Army Acquisition Policy
AR 70-1 Or se
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/ref> Jared Serbu (11 Mar 2016) Army puts its chief of staff 'at the center' of acquisition decisions
Request for Record Disposition Authority
(1 Sep 2009) AR 71–9 USAASC, Army ALT Magazine, Best Practices (16 February 2018) A Model and Process for Transitioning Urgent Acquisition
- USAASC (United States Army Acquisition Corps)

Acquisition process

Before a prototype can become a Program of Record, the Army has determined that prototype has a desired capability.
For a Program of Record, the Acquisition Life Cycle is
:°Materiel Solution Analysis;
:°Technology Maturation & Risk Reduction;
:°Engineering & Manufacturing Development;
:°Production & Deployment;
:°Operations & Support

The 40,000 member Acquisition workforce (AAW) is composed as follows (Source: CAPPMIS As of 31 July 2018):

:Percentage, Acquisition Career Field
:1% Business-Cost Estimating
:4% Information Technology
:4% Business-Financial Management
:17% Life-cycle Logistics
:20% Contracting
:4% Production, Quality and Manufacturing
:23% Engineering
:8% Program Management
:12% Facilities Engineering
:1% Purchasing
:<1% Industrial/Contract Property Management
:1% Science & Technology Manager
:5% Test and Evaluation

The Acquisition process has existed for centuries, but has historically been beset by dysfunctional response to change.AFC announcement, Friday (13 July 2018) Army Officials Announce New Army Command
video 34 minutes, 27 secondsArmy News Service (21 February 2018) Army needs entrepreneurs, says under secretary
/ref> The US Army has not fielded a new weapon system in decades. Thomas E. Ricks (MARCH 2, 2015)Why hasn't the Army's regular acquisition process produced anything in decades? --Future of War conference.
/ref>"US edge has eroded to a dangerous degree"
/ref>
The Acquisition process is in need of reform, as noted by Senator John McCain to General Mark Milley, during Milley's confirmation hearings as Army Chief of Staff.DVIDs video, 24 August 2018 press conference
/ref> A series of Acquisition reformsARMY ACQUISITION: A BRIEF HISTORY
/ref> has attempted to address these problems, not the least of which is an impending funding shortfall in 2020.
Secretary Esper scrubbed through 800Hannah Wiley (April 6, 2018) Program cuts likely under Army secretary's new Futures Command
/ref> modernization programs to reprioritize fundingJen Judson  (17 July 2018) US Army asks Congress to shift millions in FY18 dollars. What's behind the request?
/ref> for the top 6 modernization priorities,Sydney Freedberg (29 August 2018) Army Futures Command: $100M, 500 Staff, & Access To Top Leaders
/ref> which will consume 80% of the modernization funding of the army,David Vergun (September 5, 2018) Richardson confirmed as Futures Command deputy commander
/ref> of 18 systems. The Budget Control Act will restrict funds by 2020.Devon L. Suits, Army News Service (March 28, 2018)CHIPS Articles: Army Secretary defines goals for coming decade — modernization, Futures Command
/ref>Jeff Martin (15 October 2018) How did the Army find $25 billion for new equipment?
video Daniel Goure (October 18, 2018) Can Trump Rebuild The Military As Deficits Balloon?
/ref>Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (October 26, 2018) Joint Experiments Will Pick Budget Winners & Losers: Dunford
Task is to cut $33 Billion from 2020 budgetYouTube: What will $716 Billion Buy You? US Defense Budget 2019
WeaponsMichael J. Meese (23 Dec 2016) Chapter 4 : The American Defense Budget 2017–2020
Note Fed chart 1970-2026PAUL MCLEARY (October 26, 2018) Trump Orders DoD To Take Surprise $33B Budget Cut
2020 DoD budget cut from $733 billion to $700 billion PAUL MCLEARY (November 14, 2018) The Pentagon's First-Ever Audit: A Big Disappointment?
/ref> One issue is that Acquisition leadership gets unreadable reports, according to the GAO.GAO report (Jun 2017) ARMY CONTRACTING Leadership Lacks Information Needed to Evaluate and Improve Operations
/ref>

A succession of Army Secretaries and Army Chiefs of Staff have instituted reforms, or else project cancellations, in response.Wall chart
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The 2018 approach is to prototype and experiment (before Milestone B, for Army Acquisition) before the Materiel Development Decision.

Modernization priorities

The Army's modernization priorities of 2018, and its Cross-functional teams (CFTs), are found in the Army Futures Command (AFC):
#Long Range Precision Fires (Artillery branch)
#Next Generation Combat Vehicles (Armor branch)
#Future Vertical Lift (Aviation branch)
#Expeditionary network (Signal Corps)
#Air and Missile defense (Air Defense Artillery branch)
#Soldier Lethality completes the top six CFTs; in addition,
#Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing seeks a wartime replacement for GPS, and
# Synthetic Training Environment provides virtual reality training for Soldiers at their home stations

The last two CFTs are cross-cutting over multiple domains.

From the viewpoint of Futures Command, a quick failure is preferable to a long, drawn-out failure. The 6th ASA(ALT) Bruce Jette has cautioned the acquisition community to 'call-out' unrealistic processes which commit a program to a drawn-out failure, rather than failing early, and seeking another solution. A cancellation with harvestable content is not a total loss.
In the Department of Defense, the materiel supply process was underwritten by the acquisition, logistics, and technology directorate of the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), with a deputy secretary of defense (DSD) to oversee five areas, one of them being acquisition, logistics, and technology (ALT). ALT is overseen by an under secretary of defense (USD). But as of 2018 the DoD under secretary (USD) for ALT is participating in a reorganization of the DoD Acquisition process. ''(See: Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System'' (JCIDS), and ''Analysis of Alternatives)'' Dr. Jette points out that the army, by using middle-tier acquisition, has been exempted from the DoD 5000 and JCIDS procedures and is allowed to use rapid prototyping.DVIDS video (10.08.2018) AUSA 2018 CMF #1: Army Futures Command Unifies Force Modernization
/ref>

Modernization process

The modernization of the combat systems of the US Army in a timely way is the goal of Futures Command, established in 2018. AFC uses Cross-functional teams (CFTs) to downselect prospective requirements from the myriad solutions that might possibly feed into the Acquisition process. Each CFT addresses one of a manageable number of priorities set by the secretary and Chief of Staff of the Army. A CFT is a team of teams, at base a small co-located team of experts, each expert reaching back to their respective team when necessary, for additional knowledge on requirements, acquisition, science and technology, test, resourcing, costing, and sustainment. Each CFT experiments on, and tests, prototypes to learn what is doable in a timely way. Each prototype is expected to reach Milestones: A, B, C, .. until a Materiel Development Decision (MDD) can be made, whether or not to admit a Combat system into the Acquisition process. Otherwise a prototype is discarded or divested from the modernization portfolio.

The ASA(ALT) is the Acquisition executive (AAE). By statute, an MDD is ultimately the decision of the Acquisition executive (because the AAE, with the concurrence of the Chief of Staff of the Army, has Milestone Decision Authority —MDA),Financial Management School, IDENTIFY THE RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND ACQUISITION (RDA) SYSTEM, SUMMARY SHEET
/ref> who jointly might delegate the details of that materiel development decision to the PMILDEP or PEO. The PMILDEP has found CFTs to be so useful that he has recommended that each PEO find a CFT as soon as possible (in 2018).Ms. Audra Calloway (Picatinny) (September 19, 2018) With new Army Futures Command, senior acquisition leader discusses role of Program Executive Offices
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The principal military deputy (PMILDEP) of ASA(ALT) was to be also director of combat systems for Army Futures Command (AFC), by Army Directive 2018-15 but AD2018-15 has been rescinded by AD2022-07; AD2022-07 also rescinds AD2020-15.

Notes

References

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Acquisition Corps