By Claudette Roulo
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER, Md., April 1, 2015 – The
Defense Department's top acquisition official yesterday made his third visit to
Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, home to U.S. Navy Naval Air Systems
Command, or NAVAIR.
Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Logistics and
Technology Frank Kendall spoke to members of the base’s civilian and military
workforce, many of whom conduct acquisition, testing and development work for
several next-generation aircraft and weapons systems, including the Navy and
Marine Corps variants of the F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter and the
MQ-4C Triton unmanned aerial vehicle.
Kendall outlined the importance of developing the next
generation of engineers, scientists and acquisition professionals to ensuring
that the nation maintains its technological superiority.
Workforce Development
"Science, technology and math education ... I think is
hugely important to the future of the country, not just the Department of
Defense," he said. "I'm encouraging people to be engaged in that
world and do whatever you can to encourage young people to go into science,
engineering and math because of the service they can provide to society, and
because it's fun."
Kendall said the single-most important decision in his
career was one he made in junior high school, when he elected to take honors
math and science instead of honors English and history. That decision put him
on a technical track that he's stayed on ever since, the undersecretary said.
Mid-career professionals in the defense workforce are
outnumbered on either side by the very capable senior professionals who are
close to retirement and personnel just starting their careers, Kendall said.
"We've really got a challenge to transfer the knowledge
from those senior people to those younger people and develop them as quickly as
possible," he said. "I'm a big fan of exchanges with industry ...
[and] developmental assignments for people. I think you get an awful lot out of
that. You can learn a great deal in a year or even six months in a different
environment."
To do this, the department is investigating adding
flexibility to its hiring authorities, Kendall said. Defense Secretary Ash
Carter also wants to attract young workers from fields that don't traditionally
join the defense department, particularly tech workers, he said.
Technological Superiority
The quest to maintain American technological superiority is
the driving force behind the third Better Buying Power initiative, the
undersecretary said.
Kendall said that when he returned to government after a
stint in private industry it became apparent that there were "some people
out there who were challenging our technological superiority, and they're doing
it very effectively." These challengers are making smart investments,
particularly in anti-access/area-denial capabilities, he said.
The first Gulf War was a "dramatic demonstration of
[U.S.] military power," the undersecretary said. No one was watching those
events more carefully than the Chinese, Kendall noted, and the Russians weren't
far behind. But, he said, "People have had over 20 years now to watch and
learn from how the U.S. organizes, equips and fights."
Better Buying Power 3.0
The three versions of Better Buying Power should be
considered three legs of the same stool, Kendall said. "The third edition
of Better Buying Power ... is much more continuity than change," he added.
The emphasis of the first Better Buying Power was on
efficiency and productivity, BBP 2.0 emphasized the importance of
professionalism, the undersecretary said, and BBP 3.0 focuses on technical
excellence and innovation.
"A lot of the things from the earlier versions we're
still going to do, some of them I regard as core parts of Better Buying
Power," Kendall said, noting that NAVAIR and other agencies have embraced
these principles and are making significant progress toward achieving them.
Cybersecurity
One addition to BBP 3.0 is an emphasis on cybersecurity, the
undersecretary said. "If we're giving away our designs we're giving up
whatever advantage that they give to us. We're giving up money and we're giving
up time and we're giving up capability," he said.
The nation's civilian and military networks are under
cyberattack every day, Kendall said.
"We have lost, in particular, a lot of unclassified
technical information through, basically, cyber espionage and we have paid a
price for that," the undersecretary said. "We have paid a price in
terms of technical lead and in terms of cost differentials that we were able to
achieve. We have got to do a better job than this."
Cybersecurity is "a constant problem" in every
phase of the acquisition and fielding process -- from design to production to
deployment -- he said. Giving the problem the attention it needs will cost the
nation some money, Kendall said, "but if we don't do it we're going to
have new problems and we're going to find out about those problems at a very
inconvenient time."
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment