One of the largest sources of waste in the defense budget is the massive number of excess bases DoD maintains in the United States. The military has requested permission from Congress to launch another round of base closures every year, projecting savings of roughly $2 billion per year. But every year, Congress denies those requests.
By the end of June, we should have an idea of what the FY 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) will look like, and acquisition reform is sure to be on the agenda. Andrew Hunter explains why we should avoid the standard cynicism surrounding acquisition reform efforts and analyzes HASC Chairman Mac Thornberry’s latest bill.
The Defense Department has begun the formulation of a new defense strategy. Amidst the chatter surrounding the security strategy effort, Kathleen Hicks explains why significant change of Defense Department direction is unlikely to emerge from the forthcoming National Defense Strategy and recommends some tools to help manage the mismatch born of ambitious goals and inevitably limited resources.
CSIS experts Todd Harrison, Kathleen Hicks, Andrew Hunter, Mark Cancian, and Raymond DuBois recently signed an open letter calling on members of Congress to authorize a round of Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC).
On Tuesday, the Trump administration plans to release its first budget request to Congress, which will include a detailed budget proposal for defense. This will be the first chance to see the specific priorities of the new administration and gauge whether campaign rhetoric about growing the military will become administration policy.
This report examines how such incentives are used in PBL contracting and looks further towards how incentives can best be utilized in a PBL contracting environment. This report is structured in three parts: a review of the available literature on the use of incentives in PBL contracting, a data analysis of where and how PBL contracts are used in the DoD, and a summary of initial findings from the experts CSIS has interviewed on the subject.
This study examines the literature on how contracts are fulfilled for both civilian and defense crisis funds, primarily focusing on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), disaster funds, and Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funds. Utilizing publicly available data, the study provides a methodology for classifying the contracts and analyzes the data based on noncompetitive awards, undefinitized contract actions, and reachback contracts.
As the end of the current continuing resolution for fiscal 2017 approaches, all eyes are on Congress to do something. How can Congress ensure an enough money for to meet our defense challenges, readiness, and modernization needs while in a political stalemate environment?
This report is the second in an annual series examining trends in what the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is buying, how DoD is buying it, and from whom DoD is buying.
The Pentagon can’t properly train and support the people and weapons it already has. Simply adding more won’t solve the problem — and could undermine long-term readiness.