Stackley: Continuity, Not Quick Fixes, for Procurement

By Richard R. Burgess, Managing Editor

Sean Stackley, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition.

"The issues facing defense procurement in 1988 remain the issues in our day," Sean Stackley, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, told an audience at the Sea-Air-Space Exposition luncheon May 6.

Those issues, listed in 1988 by author Ron Fox, a former assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, and cited by Stackley, included setting requirements irrespective of cost; underestimating schedule and cost, changes in service and contractor requirements and changes in funding; lack of incentives to reduce cost; and failure to develop sufficient numbers of military and civilian personnel to oversee acquisition.

"The department's leadership understands that the solution lies in continuity, not quick fixes," Stackley said.

"We think we've built the right process," he said. "We're committed to driving stability into the plan. The agreement with industry to build the three DDG 1000s at Bath Iron Works while focusing the restart of DDG 51s at Northrop Grumman is a fine example. "

"We have a plan for strengthening the acquisition work force," he said. "We have initiated actions to increase our professional corps by 5,000. We must restore the core competencies inherent to the government."

Stackley praised actions such as the effort that fielded the Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected (MRAP) vehicle in Iraq, saying they were examples where "people prevailed over process."

He also praised the U.S. Transportation Command for building a " virtual bridge across the Atlantic" to rapidly transport the MRAPs to the war zone.

Stackley voiced support for the re-start of DDG 51 production, continued production of the Super Hornet strike fighter and pressing ahead with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and Littoral Combat Ship (LCS).

"The book on LCS has yet to be written," he said.

During a press availability following his remarks, Stackley reiterated the Navy's current plan to proceed with both versions of the LCS and put them through test and evaluation.

"We see the right trend in bringing costs down," he said.

The Navy is looking at commonality opportunities across the two LCS designs, such as the possibility of choosing a command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence suite common for both classes.

Stackley said affordability is driving the thought process. He cited the example of the recently canceled Harpoon Block IIIB missile program.

"The technology proved to be not as mature as we thought it was on the front end," he said. Regarding cost growth and schedule delays, "we assessed its maturity and the reliability of its cost and schedule. We determined it was time to stop the program and move on."