ABSTRACT
This chapter explains how the United States buys what it needs for defense- the acquisition process, as opposed to the decisions about how much to spend and what to buy. It evaluates the performance of the defense acquisition system and review efforts to reform it. Many reforms have been tried in the past, but the trade-offs inherent in the defense acquisition process stymie easy answers, the problems of trying to buy super-high-performance equipment on a very rapid schedule without breaking the bank. In terms of the enduring questions, weapons acquisition mainly relates to the questions of centralization and expertise. Comparing US weapons projects with those of other nations also offers useful insight. Foreign aircraft, armored vehicles, and ships of equivalent military capability either do not exist or are much more expensive than equivalent American ones. The United States is the largest arms exporter in the world by a considerable margin.
