The two leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee have rolled out legislation intended to spur an overhaul of the Pentagon’s weapons buying process. It is dubbed the Weapons Systems Acquisition Reform Act of 2009. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the panel’s chairman, said in a joint release, that the “key to successful acquisition programs is getting things right from the start with sound systems engineering, cost-estimating, and developmental testing early in the program cycle.” He added, “If these changes are successfully implemented,” they should enable the military services to avoid “cost overruns, schedule delays, and performance problems.” Ranking panel member, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), agreed with Levin on the significance of the legislation and that it alone would not “substitute for true commitment to acquisition within the Pentagon.” (Legislation summary)
The Defense Innovation Unit is gearing up for the first flight of its commercially developed hypersonic testbed as soon as the end of February—part of a larger project to quickly increase the cadence of the Pentagon’s hypersonic flight testing and field advanced, high-speed systems and components at scale.
