Owning the Technical Baseline for Acquisition Programs in the U.S. Air Force (2016) / Chapter Skim
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These reactions had the cumulative effect of distancing the Air Force from its close technical oversight of the contractors who were building the Air Force's highly complex systems. The indiscriminate application of the total system performance responsibility (TSPR)
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This view both supported and was necessitated by reductions in Air Force uniformed and civilian staff with extensive technical backgrounds. These trends were exacerbated in some cases by the use of contract price as the dominant discriminator in determining contract awards, which has led to the all-too-frequent use of lowest price, technically acceptable (LPTA)
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Owning the technical baseline: Air Force program managers and personnel have sufficient technical knowledge of their engineering development programs to enable program suc cess by making informed, timely, and independent decisions5 to manage cost, schedule, and performance risk while ensuring disciplined program execution. Owning the technical baseline allows the Air Force to respond knowledgeably and have minimal disruption to mission success.
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In May 2009, the Secretary of the Air Force and the Air Force chief of staff issued a memorandum stating that "the United States Air Force is committed to recapturing acquisition excellence by rebuilding an Air Force acquisition culture that delivers products and services as promised -- on time, within budget, and in compliance with all laws, policies, and regulations.6" It is in this context, regaining acquisition excellence, that owning the technical baseline needs to be treated as more than a process or checklist; it needs to be viewed as the result of a holistic, consistent, connected set of technical, business, human capital, and mission strate gies and practices.7 This report comprises three chapters. Chapter 1 provides context for the study.
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Furthermore, in order to attract competitive talent, the Air Force should ensure that it does not impose any additional restrictions beyond those required by law, especially relative to the post-employment period, for the posi tion of Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition. RECOMMENDATION 2: Air Force senior leaders should define, develop, and execute a strategy that balances risk and reward from a program implementa tion viewpoint, fosters a learning environment characterized by healthy tension and debate, and actively rewards acquisition personnel that regularly find a "pathway to yes." A risk-tolerant acquisition culture, in concert with a sense of urgency, is critical to agile and timely acquisition for the Air Force to maintain its advantage against rapidly evolving threats.
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The intent of the review should be to create strong career paths for acquisition personnel reflecting the critical value of acquisition to future Air Force operations. RECOMMENDATION 5: Air Force leadership should, in concert with its cur rent activities, ensure that there is necessary guidance and governance for the currency of appropriate skills of the acquisition workforce at all levels.
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are currently causing tension and often negatively impacting the effectiveness of the USAF acquisition team. Contracting support is key to owning the technical baseline, and changes are needed for future success in Air Force acquisition programs.
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Contracting professionals should engage with the program office and be well trained and experienced with their accountability and esponsibility for delivering support to the assigned Air Force organiza r tion and mission. RECOMMENDATION 10: The Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisi tion should clarify the criteria for use of the lowest price, technically acceptable (LPTA)
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These necessary steps for owning the technical baseline are especially important in light of the shorter and shorter time frames within which the Air Force needs to develop and deploy warfighting capabilities to meet rapidly emerging and changing threats.
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