Out of Joint

摘要

Joint defense acquisition programs have a poor track record. Much more than single-service projects, they have a habit of racking up significant cost increases and schedule delays, and many run into trouble during testing. Defense leaders can't quite nail down the reason, but they are preparing to do a "deep dive" to figure out why. "We seem to have a lot of difficulty with joint programs," Pentagon Comptroller Robert F. Hale said at a March acquisition conference in Arlington, Va. "We're trying to get a handle on ... what's behind this." It's not a new problem. According to a study in CrossTalk: The Journal of Defense Software Engineering, joint programs from 1997-2005 were on average about twice as likely to have schedule, development, or other problems compared to those managed by a single service. In the research, development, test, and evaluation phase, joint efforts were three times more likely to have trouble.