Ellen Lord, President Donald Trump’s nominee for Pentagon acquisition chief, said July 18 that she will push the Defense Department to make “far more use” of commercial technology if she is confirmed by the Senate.
“Congress has provided many authorities to the Department of Defense over the last couple of years that could be more widely utilized,” Lord testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. “If confirmed, that will be a huge focus of mine to make sure we take advantage of the opportunities to bring in subject matter experts, use special funds that have been set aside” and buy commercial hardware and software.
Lord, who previously was president and chief executive officer of Textron‘s [TXT] Textron Systems segment, also pledged to speed up the fielding of new technology in general.
“My industry experience suggests that an 80-percent solution, rapidly delivered, is typically far more useful than an elegant solution delivered late,” she said in her written testimony.
Responding to a question from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Lord said she would “absolutely” continue funding the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx), which DoD launched two years ago to strengthen its ties to Silicon Valley and other high-tech corridors to increase its access to commercial technology.
Also during the hearing, Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) urged Matthew Donovan, nominated to be Air Force undersecretary, to “manage the hell” out of the Northrop Grumman [NOC] B-21 bomber program to ensure it does not experience the cost overruns and schedule delays that have plagued other major new weapon systems.
“If confirmed, I can commit that that will be a top focus area,” replied Donovan, who previously was the majority policy director for the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Lord attributed the failure of the Army’s Future Combat Systems program to “requirements not being balanced with budgets and schedules,” and she pledged to avoid making similar mistakes.
“One of my key efforts would be to make sure at the onset of programs, we understand the scope of the program, the requirements, what the cost and timing implications of each of those requirements are and to make sure that we adjudicate all of those,” she told Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.).