Acquisition Reform: Military-Commercial Pilot Program Offers Benefits but Faces Challenges

Faced with substantial funding reductions for defense procurement, the Secretary of Defense made acquisition reform a top priority of the Department of Defense DOD. The challenge for DOD is to maintain technological superiority and ensure a strong national industrial base while concurrently reducing acquisition costs. The need for reforming the defense acquisition system is well recognized however, acquisition reform has been an elusive goal for many years. DOD has initiated several major efforts to implement a commercial-style procurement system that takes advantage of commercial products and processes and, whenever possible, eliminates military-unique contracting, technical, and accounting requirements. The Secretary of Defense said that acquisition reform initiatives could cut costs 20 to 30 percent. This report discusses a pilot program entitled Military Products from Commercial Lines, set up by the Air Force with one of its contractors to make reform a reality. We evaluated the pilot program to determine 1 its potential for producing the benefits sought through reform and 2 any barriers to achieving these benefits. We conducted our review under our basic legislative responsibilities.