Supply Chain

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Wednesday unanimously approved a bipartisan bill that would establish a federal acquisition council to address supply-chain cybersecurity risks, in a move intended to "bridge the information gap" in purchasing decisions by civilian agencies and the Pentagon.

The Pentagon since 2011 has been unable to prove that a series of internal efficiency initiatives have saved billions and its latest effort may be headed for a significant disruption.

Pentagon officials have been mulling over a new initiative aimed at raising the importance of security in acquisition for at least two months, but industry groups are awaiting further clarity on how the Defense Department will implement the “deliver uncompromised” effort.

The defense industrial base report, which is at the White House, focuses on the defense supply chain down to "the granular level," according to the Pentagon acquisition chief.

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson announced today the service will stand up a new rapid sustainment office to encourage the use of advanced manufacturing techniques to reduce costs and speed up time lines.

Marine Corps Maj. Gen. John Jansen said today he's set to soon debrief Gen. Joe Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Pat Shanahan, the deputy defense secretary, about a June industrial base examination held at the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy.

The Pentagon is seeking to bolster its DIBNow system, a business intelligence and analytics capability focused on the industrial base, according to the head of the Defense Department's manufacturing and industrial base policy shop.

The White House has registered objections to several reform proposals in the House Armed Services Committee's version of the fiscal year 2019 defense authorization bill, opposing provisions that would eliminate or transfer the Strategic Capabilities Office, expand the authority of the Defense Department's chief management officer and migrate the capabilities of the Defense Information Systems Agency to other Pentagon entities.

Defense Department Chief Management Officer Jay Gibson, who is in charge of the Pentagon's latest effort in a long history of initiatives to find business efficiencies that can be redirected to new spending on military readiness and weapon systems, says this time is different.