‘Burn it down’: Experts urge ditching sluggish Pentagon arms process
By Stephen Losey
Feb 10, 2025, 04:44 PM
Experts arguing to scrap the JCIDS process say the military needs more rapid acquisition processes, such as the model that helped develop Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, shown here, during the onslaught of IEDs in Iraq. (Tech. Sgt. Jared Marquis/U.S. Air Force)
The Pentagon’s requirements process for weapons development is a bureaucratic morass that stymies true innovation and must be scrapped entirely and replaced, two prominent defense experts argue in a new Hudson Institute paper.
The Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System, or JCIDS, is meant to help the Pentagon figure out what capabilities the military needs and confirm whether an acquisition program will fill those needs.
But in a report released Monday, titled “Required to Fail”, former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Industrial Policy Bill Greenwalt and Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Dan Patt argue JCIDS has failed to produce the promised results and — after at least 10 failed attempts at reform — is beyond salvaging.
“JCIDS has failed too completely, too systematically, to be rescued by another committee’s review or a fresh coat of bureaucratic paint,” Greenwalt and Patt said in the report. “The DOD needs to burn it down to its smoldering foundations and let it vanish into history.”
https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2025/02/10/burn-it-down-experts-urge-ditching-sluggish-pentagon-arms-process/
