Defense Acquisition Trends 2017: A Preliminary Look

Abstract

This paper presents a preliminary look at the Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 Department of Defense (DoD) contracting trends available in the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS). This data provides important insights concerning the defense industrial base through analysis of contract characteristics such as defense component, area (products, services, R&D), component, level of competition, platform portfolio, and vendor size. These trends provide vital information that can inform and highlight critical issues in the defense industrial base, such as the historical trough in development pipeline for major weapon systems. Given that FY 2016 was the end of seven consecutive years of DoD contract obligation drawdown, the trends for FY 2017 are particularly interesting.