Adventures in Military Acquisition... mapping the maze to Capability
I like to think of this infographic as the most valuable piece of information that I have ever received during my time working in the innovation ecosystem. Ironic that I received this during a HAF/A5R training course, rather than from any innovation training or organization. I also think that says a lot out the internal disconnects between innovation and acquisition in general. The critical point to remember is that until that hypothetical future day comes where laws are past or regulations are changed, we have the acquisition we have. The question for today should be then, how do we work within that system and integrate our new innovation initiatives. To accomplish that we have to start with the understanding of what options are available and how do they conceptually work. To that end, I present the most valuable piece of information to illustrating that answer.
The important take always from the illustration are that very few of the pathways are quick, many are restrictive to specific use cases, and all require a level of training and understanding by those who wish to utilize them due to their complexity that they are executed only at the Command staff level and above. The fastest options for initial fielding are the UON/JUON and RPRD/RFRD pathways, both of which fall under the purview of A5R, but each are specialized processes with very specific requirements for use. When looking at the other pathways, the amount of complexity and delivery timelines all go to illustrate just how much planning is required to properly utilize all of the pathways. It is the planning for utilization that is ultimately the key to integrating any innovation with the traditional acquisition system.
In addition to the learning the pathways and their functional requirements for utilization, it is also important to understand what staff offices are ultimately responsible for the execution of what types of capabilities when executing within any of the pathways. In the next article in this series, we’ll take a look at how the Command Staff is structured and where the acquisition pathways fall within that structure. This will help solve that ever mysterious question of…who do I talk to?
