Making Smart Decisions About Supply Chain Security in the Age of Globalization

Abstract

Over the last two decades, the Department of Defense (DoD) became increasingly concerned about supply chain security as the supply chain for products became increasingly dependent on commercial and global sources. Supply chains, which are interconnected webs of people, processes, technology, information, and resources around the world, are creating serious asymmetrical threats to our national defense and warfighting capabilities. Hardware-and-software-enabled components that traverse these global supply chains afford our adversaries cyberattack vectors that can compromise weapon systems. Educating and enabling the acquisition community to competently assess and make risk decisions in this new area is a particular challenge. Recent education, training, and awareness efforts seek to illuminate a narrow, deeply technical subject such that acquisition professionals can make cost-effective decisions. To that end, this paper presents a new framework for assessing the supply chain risk of particular components while complying with policies and regulations and staying within budget.