Tim Donoghue, PMP

Defense innovation community + acquisition network: Please take a look at this invaluable research survey on DoD acquisition that USSF Officer, Roman Tillman, is conducting with the goal of informing a set of best practices that can be codified in creating USSF acquisition doctrine. Driving innovation can be thankless, heavy work, but THIS is a tangible way to get your voices heard + support work that has the potential to inform the next generations of defense acquisition - informed by lessons learned, inspired by the warfighter, and committed to the mission. Endless thanks to you & your thought leadership, Roman Tillman. I'm beyond excited to see what you create -- I'm certain we need it. Tagging some wonderful humans/leaders/champions for defense innovation & acquisition within my network who come to mind (+ I admire!) that may have particular interest in this survey and/or know of others to tag/share with for increased DoD visibility: Kerry Kearschner Dolores Kuchina-Musina, Ph.D. Kim Crider Justin Fanelli Jason Rathje Bonnie Evangelista Gary Koch Angela Falcini Steven Geary Adam Rentschler David H. Reggie Wesley, MSSI, PMP Matt MacGregor Scott Bewley ken kato Nicolas M. Chaillan Robert McDonald Jr. Matthew Culp Brian DeLong Robert McDonough, MBA, PMP, LSSYB Jaska Cason Gabe Mounce Alonso Segura Kris Saling Greg Fox Albert Arnold Nick Cervantes Raj Sharma Elizabeth Reynolds Tate Westbrook Mark Bailey Daniel Carroll Clayton Duncan Candace Wright Gina Sims Travis Ledwith John Shultz Strategic Institute for Innovation in Government Contracting + SO MANY MORE!

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Yesterday, 13 June 2024, was the one year anniversary of the DoD Tiger Team's Recommendations "To Optimize Foreign Military Sales." Maybe I missed the follow-up, just like I missed the follow up to the Dept of State 18 May 2023 "FMS 2023: Retooling Foreign Military Sales for An Age of Strategic Competition." But that's OK, I'm sure the Congressional FMS Tiger Task Force report issued 7 Feb 2024 will solve things...or maybe there will be another tiger team, blue ribbon commission, or "Vision 2030" published next year that talks about how critical the FMS process is to our partner, allies, and to U.S. national security. The U.S. cannot afford to keep talking about re-tooling of Foreign Military Sales process. We need real change and we need it NOW!

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Talk, talk, talk! The 31 number is not anchored on any firm operational requirement. That number was plucked out of thin air and was based on how many amphibious platforms actually existed in 2022. 31 will fail to provide the platforms necessary to provide the nation a 3.0 ARG/MEU global presence, that means two ARG/MEUs always operating in the INDOPACOM AOR and one ARG/MEU shared between EUCOM and CENTCOM. To do that the nation will require 40 platforms 12 LHA/LHD “big deck” amphibious ships with well decks, 26 LPD FLT I AND II amphibious ships and the the repurposing of the two America class LHAs without welldecks as replacements for the aging and legacy Mt Whitney and Blue Ridge LCCs. To get there we should continue to use multi-year procurement on ships that have stable designs and proven delivery timelines. Only then will the nation’s investment in amphibious shipping maximize the potential of the Marine Corps as the nations premier maritime crisis response force limiting crisis and contributing towards global deterrence.

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Presented in the context of Navy ships, but easily applicable to other systems/industries. Recommended reading for all R&D PMs, defense acquisiton PMs, System Engineers, and anyone concerned about maintaining a competitive edge (military or otherwise). This should both comfort and terrify the latter in equal measures. Building new technologies is slow process that will continue to get slower. That’s expected. The good news is that competitors can be expected to slow as they catch up. We also can control the rate at which innovation slows. How do PMs do this? 1) Disciplined requirements management. Every added feature has three costs: Cost, schedule, and risk to success. Don’t accept unnecessary cost adding optional features. 2) Honest, thorough, carefully reasoned expectation management. Be up front and complete with key stakeholders (customers) when it comes to costs and risks associated with the capability additions they ask for, so they can make good risk decisions.

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Great article by Noah Robertson which captures one of the big challenges our Industry has in getting solutions delivered quickly to the warfighters. It's understandable that the DOD acquisitions process needs robustness when committing 13% of the Federal Government's budget towards the nation's security. The GAO report highlights that the Acquisitions community lacks the people and the creativity to apply the processes in ways that are appropriate to specific programs. The B-21 program needs an entirely different acquisition strategy than is required for the rapid fielding of tactical, loitering munitions. Similarly, Middle Tier Acquisition (MTA) programs which are fielding products with short lives don't need the same long-term planning for product Lifecycle Support as is needed for a new Frigate. There are a lot of very creative and eager companies which value the DOD as a customer, but they're getting forced out of the market by unpredictable acquisitions schedules. Undersecretary Heidi Shyu's investment in RDER and Sec Austin's commitments to OSC illustrate DOD leadership's understanding of the problem. Carrying that momentum on to MTA programs, DOD needs contracting officers and program managers who can tailor DOD 5000. Don't define a protracted, 36 month acquisition process to a rapidly evolving software development program. On the Industry side, we can contribute to defining acquisition solutions too. Being members of industry consortia, partnering with Primes on IDIQs, and defining commercial contracts are ways in which we can give our DOD program managers avenues through which they can better access smaller and mid-tier companies, and deliver more quickly and more affordably to the warfighters. DOD Acquisitions processes aren't one-size-fits-all. We have some of the most talented engineers, logisticians, operators, and managers in our nation, and we're not short of skill or motivation. We can't wait for someone else to solve all of the problems with DOD acquisitions before we weigh in. In DOD and in Industry, we each need to contribute in our own ways. Our warfighters, our countrymen and our employees are counting on us. #acquisitionreform #rder #cjadc2 #projectconvergence #abms #projectovermatch

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“Why has society not taken this world-changing reality seriously?” Two words: stigma and over-classification. At present, even mentioning this topic within professional circles in science and aerospace tends to elicit eyerolls and smirks. (At least publicly; privately, people tend to admit personal interest.) This is despite the fact that the Department of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence, Congressional leadership, and NASA have all stated publicly that UAP are real and deserving of serious scientific investigation. Well I’m crossing the picket line. Let’s destigmatize the UAP topic. Why? Because UAP represent an extraordinary opportunity. If you’re interested in transformative science, here it is: there are anomalous objects being observed by military and commercial pilots, we don’t know what they are, and we don’t think they’re ours. Stigma is not how science should be done. If we can stop arguing whether this phenomenon is even real, it just might be the greatest science story ever.

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Wonderful piece by Dr Edward Smith is the Director of Penn State's Rotorcraft Centers of Excellence (RCOE). In 1996, a Penn State team was competitively awarded one of the three Rotorcraft Centers of Excellence (RCOE) by the newly formed National Rotorcraft Technology Center (NRTC). Since that time, Penn State research and graduate student enrollment has grown 10 fold, having been competitively awarded RCOE and VLRCOE (Vertical Lift Research Center of Excellence) Cooperative agreements from the NRTC in 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016, and 2021. Penn State also receives strong support from the US Office of Naval Research (ONR), NAVAIR, US Army Research Laboratory, USAF Agility Prime, Army TDD, Army SED, NASA (Ames, Glenn and Langley Research Centers), and numerous industry partners throughout the vertical flight community. Approximately 65 full-time graduate students (50% PhD, 50% MS, and 80% US Citizens or Permanent Residents) working on $8M per year (in 2023) in projects related to dynamics, aerodynamics, acoustics, flight control and simulation, icing, HUMS, and advanced design of rotary-wing vehicles. From the piece: “Vertical flight mobility REQUIRES design, operation, and maintenance of THE MOST COMPLEX machine human beings have ever created…but the payoff is in the capability.” While there are comparable complex vehicle systems, such as nuclear submarines and space launch vehicles, the small packaging and number of moving parts per cubic foot makes the modern rotorcraft a unique challenge – and an engineering marvel to be proud of. It’s been nearly 75 years since the early flights of the Bell XV-3. The development and systematic maturation of the tiltrotor aircraft represents one of the pinnacle achievements of the aerospace engineering community. Progress has been substantial, but our work is far from over. https://lnkd.in/gtCYYX6T

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There are multiple positives for Ukraine funding this piece lays out: 1. Countering Russian aggression to maintain rule of law and order against authoritarian aggression. 2. Jobs and cash into the US economy 3. Updates and modernization of US munitions stocks 4. Better preparation for future potential conflict elsewhere (should it unfortunately occur)

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Don't miss out on the Army's upcoming RS3 and ITES-3S recompetes! Our team of government contracting experts can evaluate your company's capabilities, past performance, and competitive landscape to determine if these contracts align with your strengths. Let us help you craft a winning proposal strategy. #govcon #captureplanning #proposalwriting

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SAVE THE DATE!! SAVE THE DATE!! SAVE THE DATE!! SAVE THE DATE!!

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Another amazing way to help your personnel to better understand themselves and how they can affect others.

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Can the Joint Force do without a specialist in the littoral? I'm recommending an addition to the existing operational-level, functional component-based organizational design, and different command and control options for operations in the littoral. I'm proposing a full-time, ready, responsive, and venturesome Joint Littoral Operations Component Commander.    The littoral is a geographic locale with higher than elsewhere rates of change in momentum, tempo, and maneuver, from seaward to hundreds of miles inland. U.S. forces must continually compensate for this, as well as with the dense interconnectedness of things, people[1] and information in time and space, by employing a wide range of means, including, but beyond, conflict-necessary kinetics, by organizations other than those oriented on spatial domains and warfare expertise. In the littorals around the world, synthesized and synchronized multi-domain expertise is more important than is proficiency by individual components or the services. The Nobel Prize-winning economist Herb Simon used an aphorism in a lecture he once gave: “There is a saying in politics that ‘you can’t beat something with nothing.’ You can’t defeat a measure…simply by pointing to defects and inadequacies. You must offer an alternative.” Okay, Professor Simon, you're right: I'm proposing this addition, rather than just point out that our littoral operations ability is sub-optimized with a long journal article pointing out this degradation. This new component commander would coordinate force interoperability capabilities and actions for littoral access, collection, persistent endurance, influence, and combat. He would have the technical / technological means and the skilled personnel and procedures to leverage low observable technology, long-, medium-, and short-dwell multiple sensor fusion, and advanced integrated networks of manned and unmanned capabilities. And the JLOCC would be trained and become experienced in a non-trivial, key set of characteristics: warfighting in the littoral obtains fighting into it, fighting in it, fighting from it, and, potentially, fighting out of it. [1] Including density of settlements: estimates of populations in the littorals range from 40 to 70 percent of the earth’s humans living within 60 miles of coasts. Want to know more? Contact me at alelkins@sonalysts.com

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This message is not a cry for help but rather a heads-up for those looking to make a smooth transition from military life to civilian employment. I'm sharing my experiences to possibly help others. It's a bit long TAPS is a joke (just my opinion). It’s mandatory, but honestly, everything taught in TAPS can easily be found on the internet. Though designed to aid transitioning military members, it feels outdated and the instructors often seem out of touch with today’s job market requirements, keep reading for another option. Need help with your BDD claim? There are plenty of people claiming they'll help, but it's crucial to find the right assistance. First tip: YouTube has numerous resources, but remember, these are mainly from people who separated over five years ago. They may not be relevant for recent or upcoming discharges under the Benefits Delivery at Discharge program. Don't sign up for VA boot camps or pay for services when you can get help from VSOs for free. Be wary when choosing a VSO—some will guide you thoroughly through your records and what to claim (these are the good ones). Others might just send an email asking you to fill out forms and make a quick phone call to submit them. If a VSO doesn’t want to meet in person, find another one immediately. Education and Certifications. I hold a BS in Aeronautical Engineering and an MBA in HRM, but degrees don’t carry the same weight as they used to outside the military world. Certifications are now key. For instance, despite decades of managing HR tasks and taking care of people, without a certification in HRM, my experience means little. The same goes for project management; regardless of how long you’ve been doing it in the military, without a PMP certification, it's not as valued. Skillbridge is a must! There are plenty of Skillbridge opportunities out there. Some are in-office programs where you learn how the civilian business world operates, others are online. The military has taken its toll in many ways, and Skillbridge is your time to focus on you. Here’s what I did: I spent four months with Allegiantvets. The first week was an Empowerment week, which was like TAPS on steroids! and actually useful, covering everything from BDD, job searching, resume building, to mentoring with civilians and negotiation tactics for salary discussions. After Empowerment week, I chose the project management track, earning certifications directly relevant to the industry, like a Google Project Management certificate and Six Sigma belts. Skillbridge offers a unique blend of learning and development, tailored to transitioning military members. Each week, you’ll attend a Zoom meeting covering various topics that aid in your transition. With over 2,000 members from all military branches participating, it's managed by military retirees who truly understand your needs. Just some thoughts from my experience, Dan Links VSO - https://lnkd.in/en4pmJ2f allegiantvet : https://lnkd.in/eMd_KMmY

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Two bits of good news for retiring Soldiers! 1️⃣ 👉 US Army Human Resources Command has eliminated the backlog of Active Component retirement applications. The AC Retirements and Separations Branch is now processing all separation actions as they are received in IPPS-A. HRC aims -- at a minimum -- to complete processing of officer and enlisted retirement requests within 12 months and 18 months, respectively, of the desired retirement date. The pilot program for requesting retirement up to 24 months before the retirement date continues unchanged. 2️⃣ 👉 HRC's Gray Area Retirements Branch previously eliminated its backlog of retirement applications for nonregular retirements. This means that there will be no lag in starting retired pay for Army National Guard and Army Reserve Soldiers if their submitted retired pay application has no errors and is submitted 90 days to 9 months before their age of eligibility. #soldierforlife #retirementplanning

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A robust report, lots of good points from Special Competitive Studies Project - SCSP Vision. “This Vision for Competitiveness seeks to bolster national strength, strengthen alliances, rebuild deterrence, catalyze American prosperity, and ensure our leadership in the coming era of AI-driven technological innovation.” The points about re-purposing the IC to do techno-economic intelligence resonated with me, as that was a recommendation Norine MacDonald KC and I made in our NDU “Killing me Softly” paper back in Jan 2020 https://lnkd.in/dqzcR_-M SCSP VISION document states that: - The IC must strengthen its ability to deliver techno-economic intelligence. To do so, the IC will need to expand its focus beyond what has traditionally been considered within the scope of national security to broader issues of national competitiveness. U.S. leaders should be able to count on the IC to provide in-depth assessments of PRC, Russian, Iranian, and North Korean trade and investment flows, detailed insights on their key companies and critical supply chains, and rich analyses of their technological advancements. - U.S. intelligence will also need to understand foreign competitors’ emerging platforms in technology and finance, especially as these data-collecting, strategic platforms are exported abroad. - The IC should establish a National Techno-Economic Intelligence Center to analyze economic, financial, and technological intelligence and coordinate economic threat information.Like an techno-economic equivalent of the National Counterterrorism Center, this center would warn of foreign threats to the U.S. economy, make sense of rivals’ grand strategies, apprise the U.S. industry about threats such as intellectual property theft and supply chain vulnerabilities, and evaluate opportunities to deploy tools of economic leverage. - To be fully effective, the IC must have the legal authorities and incentives to perform techno-economic net assessments that would enable policymakers to weigh the United States’ comparative advantage — or disadvantage — in a particular technology. This would require the IC to expand its partnerships with U.S. companies and research organizations, and those of our allies, that are the key sources for technical insights or have the necessary connections to foreign suppliers and competitors. I also liked the idea of creating a “TECH EXPORT ACCELERTOR”: - To deepen foreign markets for U.S. emerging technology exports, the United States should establish a Tech Export Accelerator to boost American technology flows to allies and partners. - Staffed by specialists knowledgeable about U.S. government financing and commercial advocacy tools and relevant foreign markets, this “one-stop shop” would work hand in hand with U.S. companies and overseas missions to identify major project opportunities, support proposal development, and drive sales across the finish line.

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US Weighs Nuclear Cruise Missiles on Subs to Counter China 1. Strategic Shift and Complex Trade-offs: The US is contemplating deploying nuclear-armed submarine-launched cruise missiles (SLCM-N) on modified Virginia-class submarines to address a perceived deterrence gap with China and Russia. This initiative faces significant challenges, including cost uncertainties, potential impacts on other strategic weapons programs, and the need for a delicate balance in execution given the limited expertise in the nuclear weapons sector. 2. Debate Over Effectiveness and Necessity: Proponents argue that deploying SLCM-N would enhance the US's tactical nuclear capabilities, providing a counterbalance to China's and Russia's low-yield nuclear weapons. Critics, however, highlight potential drawbacks, including high costs, operational complications, and the risk of escalation. They suggest focusing on modernizing existing nuclear forces and diplomatic measures instead. 3.Broader Implications for US Naval Strategy: The discussion around SLCM-N highlights broader concerns about US conventional and nuclear deterrence. With China’s military advancements and assertive territorial claims, there is pressure on the US to adapt its naval strategy, possibly reintroducing tactical nuclear weapons at sea to maintain regional stability and support allies.(https://lnkd.in/ewfskfyE) This potential policy shift signifies a substantial change in the US's nuclear posture, reflecting the evolving geopolitical landscape and the increasing complexity of maintaining strategic deterrence. https://lnkd.in/eXGf5ZTy

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