As grim as the news is about the United States’ missile shortfall, there are some signs that the administration is trying to change the way the government’s procurement policies work.
The Army has officially opened up four of its domestic testing ranges and one international range where private industry can blast off interceptor missiles they have developed with their own funds, in hopes of getting promising candidates into the acquisition pipeline faster.
The inspiration is, quite specifically, Ukrainian. In that country, traditional procurement mechanisms are maintained, but channels have been opened that allow promising new weapons systems to bypass the more established bureaucratic process in order to demonstrate what they can do. In the U.S., however, defense companies, particularly if they are smaller and less established, have had to wait their turn to show off their wares at military testing grounds, typically at White Sands in New Mexico. Getting a slot there can take twelve to 18 months, and, at the risk of sounding alarmist, that’s too long to wait in the current climate. Opening up other existing testing grounds is both sensible and overdue.
Breaking Defense quotes Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll as saying that the old approach was no longer sufficient:
“If you look at what Ukraine has done so incredibly well, it’s this innovation through necessity and it’s innovation at the speed that is near or close to matching the commercial sector. So what we, the Army, are trying to do is break down every single barrier that we have put up over the last 20 or 30 years.”
Driscoll said the Army’s goal is to get companies onto testing ranges within 30 days of when they submit a request through a newly launched website which Driscoll said will provide “concierge access to every range.”
Again, borrowing from the Ukrainian approach, the companies going through the testing process will have to pay for their own R&D. This program is not designed to nurture new weapons that are not yet ready for prime time. Rather, it is intended to provide a mechanism where companies that have a missile ready to go can demonstrate its effectiveness to the military. And if the military is sufficiently impressed, that’s the point when a contract will be awarded.
This is the way.