The effectiveness of weapon system acquisition reform efforts

Most Americans believe that their nation's weapon acquisition system is one of the worst-managed activities in the public or private sectors. Although the process has been the subject of many reform efforts, it is reasonable to ask whether these reform efforts had any success. This article examines the effectiveness of such reforms by reviewing the results of the acquisition process. This analysis, using measures of the extent of cost growth and schedule slippage, indicates a trend toward improvement in the acquisition process, at least up to the 1980s. Acquisition results from the decade of the 1980s suggest some stalling in this trend. However, when the process is compared to other public and private sector acquisition systems, it appears to be performing well.