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SEPTEMBER 29, 2021 – In a speech earlier this year, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III called deterrence the cornerstone of defense to ensure that U.S. adversaries know that the risk of aggression is incompatible with every conceivable benefit Defense Department official said today.
Gregory M. Kausner, serving as Secretary of State for Defense for Acquisition and Preservation, was the keynote speaker at Common Defense 2021 this morning.
“In describing a new vision of ‘integrated deterrence’ he has [Austin] said that while it is still based on the same logic, it now spans multiple areas, ”said Kausner. “The right mix of technology, operating concepts and skills – everything so interwoven and networked that it is credible, flexible and so impressive that it makes every opponent pause.”
This approach is cross-cutting, spanning numerous geographical areas of responsibility, tied to allies and partners, and empowered by all instruments of national power, he said.
“For us in the acquisition and maintenance company, the concept of integrated deterrence is a call to action,” said Kausner.
The DOD needs to evolve its policies, processes – and most importantly, its culture – to ensure that the United States and its network of allies and partners remain dominant in the battlefield of the 21st century, he said.
The purpose of acquiring and maintaining DOD is to provide and maintain the fighters and international partners safe, resilient and outstanding skills, emphasized Kausner.
As defense procurement has evolved, today’s geopolitical landscape requires an integrated set of skills to create a lethal, resilient, and rapidly adapting joint force, he said.
“The development of such capabilities should be guided by mission engineering – a means of achieving the desired war effects through targeted requirements, directed development, and sound investment – to link programs directly to the missions they must complete,” he explained.
“Simply put, the mission architecture is the business model for conducting operations,” he noted. Kausner added that by illuminating the overall mission architecture, DOD is able to identify critical mission threads and the end-to-end tasks required.
Kausner said the acquisition company must focus its considerable resources, ingenuity, and expertise on the critical connections that will enable the fighters to complete the kill chain.
In recent years, DOD has embarked on this process with a major overhaul of its acquisition policy. The result was the adaptive acquisition framework – one of the most transformative changes in defense procurement in years, he said.
According to Kausner, the framework empowers program teams with six different paths to tailor their approaches to a specific skill, making DOD more agile and disciplined in addressing acquisition challenges at the program level.
Kausner said that in order to ensure a ready-to-use workforce, DOD is implementing a comprehensive talent management framework that focuses on streamlining certification requirements, expanding job-related skills opportunities, and providing a continuous learning model. It also adopts best practices to optimize our performance.
Kausner said DOD is also evolving into a data-centric company that uses data quickly and at scale for operational benefits and greater efficiency.
And while DOD is only scratching the surface, it is imperative to push defense procurement forward at the enterprise level, he said. A holistic approach to business acquisition is needed – one that integrates policies and processes at the micro level, but also aligns other important aspects of defense acquisition at the macro level, he said.
Kausner said the DOD needs to expand its assessments to a portfolio of systems to identify and address interactions and critical risks. The department is introducing integrated reviews of the acquisition portfolio to strengthen the synchronization of warfare concepts, requirements, technologies and program execution.
“We are in the middle of a realignment from a program-centric approach to a portfolio-based perspective,” he said. “For example, instead of looking at just one particular ammunition, we’re focusing more on how that system fits into the broader portfolio of integrated air and missile defense capabilities,” he said.
Such a view enables DOD not only to see all the dots, but to connect them to align decision-making directly with operational needs, said Kausner.
“We can expect adversaries to challenge our logistical dominance from home to the outskirts of the battlefield,” he said, adding that overarching portfolio reviews will highlight the impact of contested logistics by assessing material shortages, ammunition levels and fuel supply chains across a range across systems.
“Climate change will also continue to transform our operating environment,” he said. “Going forward, portfolio reviews will assess the effectiveness of both our new programs and our supporting infrastructure in light of the changing environment.”
Adopting a portfolio perspective will enable a healthy, dynamic and, above all, a viable industrial base for defense now and in the future, said Kausner.
BY TERRI MOON CRONK, DOD NEWS
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