The Logistics Impact of Evolutionary Acquisition

In 2003, the Department of Defense directed that Evolutionary Acquisition EA, often referred to as spiral development, become the preferred approach for the acquisition of major weapon systems. Under EA, development, testing, production and fielding of a system take place in increments, once the system reaches a certain stage of maturity. We contend that EA was adopted without consideration of the impact of this approach on logistics support of the system. The result could be degradation of support to each increment of the system and of operational availability. We recommend policy changes that could mitigate the effect of EA on logistics support by elevating the role that logistics play in the testing and milestone approval process for systems acquired using this approach.