The United States cannot afford to fall behind in advances in technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, hypersonics, biotechnology, and autonomous systems against a near-peer adversary like China. The ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the recent Iranian attack on Israel demonstrate the ease and proliferation of advanced technology for military use.
When the Department of Defense identifies promising new technologies and capabilities to help address national security challenges, it struggles to acquire and incorporate those technologies into the warfighter. One reason is the Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution System (PPBE), which has been around for more than 60 years.
With rare exceptions, the Department of Defense is unable to acquire new technologies and systems in a timely manner. You cannot upgrade your system with the latest software, sensors, or microelectronics. Moreover, they cannot even tie the technologies and companies developed with their own research funds into production contracts.
For decades, the Pentagon has relied on innovation flowing from government labs and the defense industry's biggest companies, typically funded by the Pentagon's research budget. Innovation is now increasingly flowing in from the non-defense commercial sector, far outpacing government processes. Commercial investments in some key defense technology areas, such as artificial intelligence and biotechnology, are often much larger than the Department of Defense's research budget.
PPBE reform is needed to take advantage of this new technological landscape. Complex and inconsistent regulations have twisted the Department of Defense and made the basic commercial practice of modernization through rapid iteration unattainable.
For example, in the three years it takes to go through the PPBE process, computer processor speeds have easily quadrupled, generations of advanced drone systems have been produced, and thousands of new biological systems have been produced that serve a wide range of military applications. materials will be developed. It is being developed.
For the Department of Defense to modernize to keep up with the pace of new technology, it will need to make smaller advances more frequently. This approach requires greater agility and decision-making room for those closest to the problem and solution space.
The Congressional PPBE Reform Commission offers 28 actionable recommendations in its final report to reform the current PPBE process, helping the Department of Defense attract and capture innovation at an appropriate pace. and the ability to put it into practice. These include:
- Delegate more authority within the Department of Defense for faster decision-making. Delegation of authority streamlines decision-making, reduces bureaucracy, and allows businesses to operate faster and more agilely. The Department will provide employees and organizations with the ability to make faster decisions on reprogramming actions, communicate with Congress on program status, and perform other financial management functions currently performed at higher levels of authority. can be provided.
- Update the Below Threshold Reprogramming (BTR) value. The committee recommended a series of increases to funding thresholds to give program managers and program executives the authority they need to move funds where they deem them needed. Congress has taken the first steps in this area, already increasing the BTR level in the FY 2024 defense spending bill.
- Integrate budget items and research, development, test, and evaluation budget activities. Consolidation increases flexibility and minimizes unnecessary boundaries in fundraising. This can be done in a way that maintains spending transparency for both the Department of Defense's internal regulators and Congress.
- When it comes to financing, consider using more contemporary colors. By making procurement, RDT&E, and/or operations and maintenance funds available for the full cycle of technology development, acquisition, and upgrades, the Department of Defense is able to leverage the rapidly advancing technologies that power today's defense and weapons systems. You can make the most of the power of
- Allow more departmental innovation activities under continuing resolutions. Artificial restrictions placed on newly initiated programs under the CR could have a devastating impact on the Department's ability to incorporate new technologies and innovations into the budget. Allowing spending decisions already made by the Congressional Defense Committees to proceed based on the CR will help the Department of Defense direct resources to timely innovations that keep our nation safe.
Budget and resource allocation reforms alone cannot guarantee the success of DoD programs. But without reform, the key to success in today's multi-threat environment – having the agility to grow defense systems at the speed of innovation – will become increasingly difficult, more expensive and Their ability to protect themselves and their allies will increasingly come into question.
Mr. Arun Serafin and Mr. Diem Salmon serve on the Committee on Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Executive Reform. Serafin is also executive director of the National Defense Industry Association's Emerging Technology Institute. Salmon works as vice president of air superiority and attack at Anduril Industries, an autonomous systems specialist.
