Skip to main content (Press Enter).
 News
    
        Photos

    Week in Photos

    Air Force TV

    Commentaries

    Features

    Art

    About Us
    
        Air Force Senior Leaders
    
        SECAF

    CSAF

    CMSAF

    Biographies

    Fact Sheets

    SECAF Reading List

    CSAF Leadership Library
    
        CSAF Leadership Library 2022

    CSAF Leadership Library 2021

    CSAF Reading List Pre-2020 Archive
    
        2018 CSAF Reading List

    2017 CSAF Reading List

    2016 CSAF Reading List

    CSAF Leadership Library 2023

    CMSAF Leadership Library

    50 Years of the CMSAF

    Adjunct Professors

    Air Force Strategic Documents

    Arctic Strategy

    Empowered Airmen

    State Licensure Portability

    Careers

    AF Federal Advisory Committees

    AF 75th Anniversary

    Policy Updates

    AF Content Management

    Contact Us

    AF Sites
    
        Site RegistrationU.S. Air Force LogoAir Force

        Policy UpdatesNewsroomReoptimizationBIOGRAPHIESAF Senior Leaders      Initiatives to improve Air Force acquisitionPublished May 18, 2015
                    
                    By Patty Welsh
                    
                    
                    66th Air Base Group Public Affairs
            **LEXINGTON, Mass. (AFNS) --**Addressing an audience of industry and government employees here May 13, the Air Force’s Service Acquisition Executive spoke about acquisition priorities, challenges and initiatives.Dr. William LaPlante, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, emphasized his top priorities: “big” projects, consisting of the F-35 Lightning II, the KC-46A Pegasus and the Long-Range Strike Bomber; transparency and bending the cost curve; owning the technical baseline; Better Buying Power 3.0; and strategic agility.The speech came during a visit to nearby Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, which also included stops at MITRE Corp. and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory, where he attended the Air Vehicle Survivability Workshop.Speaking on acquisition and transparency, he mentioned it’s often hard to let go of preconceived notions.“The hardest thing is not to get new thoughts into people’s minds, but to get old thoughts out,” LaPlante said.Two years into the job, he said people still think the Air Force takes fighter pilots and makes them program managers. However, the average acquisition career program manager has 19 years of experience and program executive officers usually even more.In addition, cost and schedule overruns are often exaggerated. He said adjusting for inflation, overall program costs have declined for the past three years. Schedules are still a challenge for development programs, but that is often due to issues with software or systems engineering.He mentioned Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III bending the cost curve efforts to drive down weapons system costs. He also recognized the Air Force’s efforts in working with industry organizations such as the National Defense Industrial Association, and the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association to look at small sets of projects and initiatives.One effort is using other transactional authority (OTA), which allows flexibility in the contracting process, reducing the contract award time.The Air Force will host PlugFest Plus June 8, at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, using the Distributed Common Ground System, as an open systems architecture. Various information technology companies will work as a consortium to provide specific problem-solving regarding the system via the milCloud system at Hanscom. The upcoming event allows interested companies to “plug in” their systems into an open architecture, and demonstrate their best system applications. After using OTA, the goal will be to get the best options on contract within a week or two, allowing companies an opportunity to build prototypes.“We’re experimenting with these kinds of things because, as we set up the open architectures, we want quick ways to get people to bring their algorithm or application in and not wade through the laborious process,” LaPlante said.Throughout his presentation, LaPlante continually highlighted the necessity of open systems architecture and open mission systems.“If there’s one thing you take away today, it’s open systems,” he said. “We’re doing it -- program by program.”Other initiatives address acquisition challenges, intellectual property, “out-of-the-box” experiments, and meaningful discussions during source selections and foreign military sale challenges.LaPlante also addressed owning the technical baseline, recapturing what the Air Force used to do in the 1990s. It’s government program offices, in conjunction with their teams including personnel from Federally Funded Research and Development Centers and contractor support, being smart buyers. The program offices should have the integrated master schedule, know the design of the system and run performance models independent of the system.When talking about complex systems, multiple places should look at performance, he said. Using the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) recapitalization as an example, LaPlante said the program office should also understand how the system is working and being used today; items such as availability and operator complaints need to be understood as the program office works on the replacement.Building to the future was something LaPlante focused on when addressing strategic agility. He said the Air Force is looking to reinvigorate developmental planning, and when that comes to acquisition, it means adaptability.“You’ll have to plan for the fact that you will not know what our adversaries or technology will do,” he said. “And that the warfighter will find a way to use (the system) in a way you never thought of, so you need to build in open architectures and allow for pivot points.”Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition 



Hanscom AFB 



AFMC 



acquisition Featured News
        Senior Leader Priorities
                SecAF, CSAF, CMSAF begin Indo-Pacific trip focused on ACE
                    
                    DAF leaders talk budget, reoptimizing the force
                    
                    DAF leaders speak at National Character and Leadership Symposium
                    
                    DAF members recognized during BEYA STEM awards
                    
                    DAF senior enlisted advisors discuss Airmen, Guardians in the fightInnovation
                F-16s arrive to be modified for autonomous testing
                    
                    AFWERX director discusses role of tech startups, quick innovation in Great Power Competition
                    
                    DAF delivers lethality at the speed of data during Project Convergence Capstone 4
                    
                    DAF welcomes industry partners to HQ development program
                    
                    DAF announces Spark Tank 2024 finalistsMAJCOM News
                Safety enterprise announces new mission, vision, goals in 2024 strategic plan
                    
                    Air Combat Command welcomes new commander
                    
                    USAFE-AFAFRICA commander discusses Integrated Air, Missile Defense during Munich Security Conference
                    
                    Flosi to AFMC family: Embrace change, make every day count
                    
                    AMC rises to increasing global tension
 Quick Links
AccessibilityContact UsEqual OpportunityFOIA | Privacy | Section 508Information QualityInspector GeneralJAG Court-Martial DocketLink DisclaimerNo FEAR ActOpen GovernmentOSI Tip LinePlain LanguageQuestionsResilienceRSSSite MapVeterans Crisis LineCareers
Join the Air ForceAir Force BenefitsAir Force CareersAir Force ReserveAir National GuardCivilian ServiceConnect
            Get Social with Us
            
            Official United States Air Force Website
    Hosted by Defense Media Activity - WEB.mil