Cultural Analysis Case Study: Implementation of Acquisition Reform within the Department of Defense

The United States defense industry has been under constant scrutiny for many years but until only recently has it come under intense pressure to change its business practices. The pressure has come from both internal and external sources… taxpayers, who will no longer tolerate wasteful spending and, the government, which insists on implementing cost control measures. The shift is due, in part, to the post-Cold War challenge. Now, the defense industry is faced with new threats, unpredictable threats such as severe budget cuts, public
scrutiny, congressional investigations, and rapidly changing technologies. Still, the defense industry is slow to respond to these new demands… even though initiatives have been established for many years to facilitate reform. These policy changes, the new demands, have been coined “Acquisition Reform”. An acquisition is defined as a purchase. Simple enough and straight forward too; it also seems straight forward that changing the purchasing behavior of the defense industry would result in cost savings to the government and satisfy the people. It may be obvious… but when talking about large defense systems, it’s not easy.