Change in Acquisitions Mentality in Regard to Engineer Kits within the Marine Corps

Abstract

Currently the Marine Corps buys kits the same way that they buy other items, with one large buy or a few smaller buys. These buys are triggered from needs requests sent by the operating forces, due to obsolescence of gear, or a new requirement. This, in my opinion, leaves to much room for Marines to make do with what they have. Leaving little room for improvement of tools and equipment keeping pace with industry standards. This capstone project is evaluating “if an evolutionary acquisitions approach would be beneficial to the performance and lifetime cost currently associated with engineering kits (kits are Carpenter Kits, Pioneer Kits, Airfield Damage Repair Kit).” My thought is that by setting up incremental evaluations of engineer kits based on time rather than needs request the program office can better evaluate if the Marine Corps equipment is keeping up with industry , the mission, and create a forcing function for new equipment acquisition without having to replace all the other parts of the tool kit.