Rapid Evolutionary Acquisition - an in-Progress Review of an Exemplar Pilot Initiative

Abstract

Traditionally, the US military has sought and achieved asymmetric military advantage, i.e. delivered tactical blows, quickly, in the right places. However, lately, non-state terrorists have seized the asymmetric advantage. They use cutting edge Commercial-Off-the-Shelf Information Technology (COTS IT) for agile Command, Control, Communications, Computer and Intelligence (C4I). US Military, by contrast, is hamstrung by brittle, archaic MILSPEC C3I kit, and by a crushing bureaucracy that resists refreshing the technology at anything approaching Internet speeds. Members of the US Naval Intelligence have voluntarily reached across stovepipes to re-establish tactical asymmetric advantage, through Rapid Evolutionary Acquisition (REA) of game-changing IT. It’s not about the technology per se; it’s about using IT to give warfighters “information high ground.” Accordingly, REA adapts best practices from success cases in government and industry. Meanwhile, Congress has demanded DoD fix its broken IT acquisition processes. This REA initiative serves as an exemplar.