IT acquisitions present new challenges for Pentagon

As information technology has become an inexorable part of the Pentagon's business and wartime operations, its acquisition functions have had to address new challenges, Defense Deputy Secretary William Lynn said on Thursday.

The Defense Department now spends more than $30 billion on IT alone, and the ability to integrate this technology into its operations and structures is one of the most important determinants of military power, Lynn told attendees at the Defense IT acquisition summit in Washington.

"As [Defense Secretary Robert] Gates said at the start of the Quadrennial Defense Review, both the old paradigm of looking at potential conflicts are either regular or irregular war, conventional or unconventional; high end or low is no longer relevant," Lynn said. "We now face a world of hybrid warfare, with insurgents who have [improvised explosive devices] that can pierce heavy armor, terrorists who aspire to cyberwarfare and rogue states with weapons of mass destruction."

IT's increasing importance in war makes streamlining information technology acquisitions one of the Pentagon's most pressing issues. While Defense leaders struggle with challenges affecting all major acquisitions, they face an entirely unique set of IT-related issues. Unlike the technologies for traditional weapons systems, information technology developments are designed almost primarily in the commercial marketplace, not within the classified Defense universe. As a result, the department must find a way to import these technologies into their existing systems. Another pressing challenge is the constantly changing nature of IT, Lynn said.

"Weapons systems depend on stable requirements, but with IT, technology changes faster than the requirements process can keep up," he said. "It changes faster than the budget process and it changes faster than the acquisition milestone process. For all these reasons, the normal acquisition process does not work for information technology."

According to Lynn, it takes an average of about seven years for Defense to move a program from its initial funding phase to fully operational. If the department accepted this status quo for IT, that would leave the Pentagon four to five generations behind the state-of-the-art technology, he said.

"The iPhone was developed in less time than it would take DoD to budget for an IT program," he said.

Given these realities, Defense is adopting a strategy focused on systems architecture and testing commercially developed IT components. The department is working to ensure their information technology systems are flexible and adaptable so old platforms can be reinvented as they age to address new missions and challenges. Lynn said this approach already is being used and working well.

The department also must recognize that its end users -- warfighters -- are "digital natives." Lynn said.

"Information technology is a natural part of everything they do," he added. "Many of our enemies are digital natives as well. Unless we build systems for tech-savvy soldiers, we will continue to limit ourselves in the fight against tech savvy enemies."