Buying Commercial: Gaining the Cost/Schedule Benefits for Defense Systems

Book excerpt: Offers important considerations for the DoD for acquisition of commercial systems. Purchasing commercial or other government off-the-shelf and commercial- or foreign-derivative systems presents a significant opportunity to DoD. The challenge is to reap the advantages such as predictable and lower costs, short realization schedules, low risk and demonstrated performance, without the missed benefits than previous attempts have experienced. This study cites a number of issues related to the certification and qualification of commercial technologies to meet military requirements. The report makes recommendation to address these issues in the areas of acquisition practices, experience, educ., communication, organization, and leadership.