The diminished state of Defense IT acquisition and how to fix it

Pentagon logo is seen ahead of a press conference at the Pentagon in Washington D.C., United States on August 20, 2024. Photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images

The Department of Defense’s reliance on commercial information technology has never been greater, or more openly acknowledged as mission-critical. Yet despite decades of reform, most major DOD IT programs continue to fail to deliver meaningful capability on time or on budget. According to the Government Accountability Office, large federal IT investments — including those at DOD — historically fail to meet cost, schedule or performance objectives more than 80% of the time.

What makes this failure rate especially troubling is that the system enabling it remains largely unchanged. System engineering and technical advisory teams that presided over failed programs often continue to profit from those same efforts. These conflicts of interest have been widely documented and were a contributing factor behind ...