Charting a Course for Change: Acquisition Theory and Practice for a Transforming Defense

Abstract

Many in the Department of Defense associate the phase acquisition reform with major policy and legislative initiatives of the past decade, for example, the shift away from reliance on military unique specifications and standards, the emphasis on teaming, the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (FASA), and the Clinger-Cohen Act. While we should never discount the significance of these measures, the view that the 1990s were the genesis of acquisition reform diminishes perspective of the long history of reform efforts linked to names such as Goldwater, Nichols, Grace, Carlucci, Packard, and Hoover, to name but a few. Indeed, these efforts extend back in our history to the Continental Congress attempts to reform the buying practices of General Washington's Army. Considering this history, reform may well be acquisition's defining theme.