The swift pace of technology evolution demands a “re-evaluation” of the Department of Defense’s (DoD) acquisition policies, a Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) official said today.
John Hale, DISA’s chief of Cloud Services, said at the GDIT Emerge conference that existing DoD acquisition policies have handcuffed officials from bringing in the best solutions. And he argued that the rapid pace of technology development demands a more flexible approach to stay competitive and to better secure U.S. interests.
“Within the department we still buy as if it was acquisition for a weapons system,” Hale said, adding that the policies in place for procurement and acquisition “are rooted in 1945 thought and we’re way beyond that.”
The DoD’s current acquisition and budget process involves several key stages: defining requirements, formulating and submitting budget requests, and congressional review and approval. But despite its structured approach, the process is often criticized for being slow and bureaucratic, which can impede the rapid integration of new technologies.
The process begins with identifying military needs and developing capability requirements, which are then used to create budget requests that are consolidated into the President’s budget for the Pentagon. Hale said that’s where the problems begin.
“Our planning and budget cycles are in such a way that they don’t really facilitate agile capabilities,” he said.
“It’s September of 2024 and I just submitted my budget for 2026 and in that budget, I had to submit my five-year plan,” Hale explained. “So, not only did I submit my budget for 2026 I had to also plan what I was going to spend all the way through to 2031.”
“In today’s world with how rapid things are changing and how agile technology and capabilities are, those are the handcuffs that we’re playing on,” Hale said.
“How am I agile when I’m trying to predict in 2024 what I’m going to need in 2026, and 2027, and 2028,” he said. “Those are where I think the procurement laws need to be changed and updated to deal with what we’re doing today.”
Hale pointed out that sectors such as electric and water utilities benefit from government regulation, allowing them to adapt more easily. In contrast, the defense sector lacks this flexibility, as “tech is not a government-regulated industry, so therefore we can’t do that legally,” he explained.
He continued by explaining that the DoD’s current acquisition policy creates such significant obstacles that it drives the emergence of shadow IT, “where people are hiding everything and everywhere” to complete tasks, increasing vulnerability.
While Hale did not predict a large-scale overhaul of acquisition policy, he did say he is collaborating with the department’s acquisition team to implement changes where possible.
