ABSTRACT
The Department of Defense (DOD) continues to state a need to modernize weapons for the armed forces at a faster pace within relatively level funds. It has a budget of over $40 billion in fiscal year 1998 to acquire and upgrade weapons, and may not reasonably expect to receive much more than that amount in future years. Therefore, it must find new ways to modernize more economically. The challenge of the Soviet Union has been replaced by a challenge to maintain weapons that have a leading technological edge; however, such technologies are increasingly being developed in the commercial sector. In this period of lessened tensions, DOD has an opportunity to revamp the practices it uses to acquire weapon systems, avoid the technological obsolescence that comes with 15-year and longer product development cycles, speed the pace of modernization in the face of budgetary pressures, and meet defense needs with sufficient flexibility. The practices employed by some commercial firms to reduce the time and money to develop new products—by as much as 50%—can illuminate ways for DOD to make similar improvements.
