Frank Kendall, Air For secretary, speaks at the annual Air Force Association conference in Sept. 2021. (AFA)
SPACE SYMPOSIUM — The Defense Department is asking Congress to allow the initiation of new development programs before a final budget is approved, a new set of authorities that are aimed at meeting emerging threats or getting ahead of game changing technology, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said today.
“We’re in a very aggressive contest for military technology superiority,” which necessitates changing how the department gets its funding, Kendall told reporters in the margins of the Space Foundation’s annual Space Symposium.
He noted that the Department of the Air Force alone has 12 new starts that it’s been waiting to initiate for over a year, a delay caused by the use of continuing resolutions. “That’s a lot to give away, and it’s totally unnecessary,” he said.
The legislative proposal [PDF], which was approved by the White House Office of Management and Budget, was transmitted to Congress on April 12. Called “Rapid Response To Emergent Technology Advancements or Threats,” it would grant DoD legal acquisition authority to:
“initiate new start development activities, up to a preliminary design review level of maturity, in order to—
(1) leverage an emergent technological advancement of value to the national defense; or
(2) provide a rapid response to an emerging threat.
Kendall first publicly floated the concept at the annual McAleese defense budget conference in March. Speaking at a Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee hearing Tuesday, Kendall called on appropriators to support the proposal.
“Our proposal would expand rapid acquisition authority, so the military departments can more quickly respond to emerging threats and take advantage of evolving technology. Within reasonable constraints, this legislative proposal would allow progress on compelling national security needs that would otherwise be delayed until the next submission and approval of the President’s budget. I’ve been pushing this reform for many years, and we look forward to working with the Congress on this proposal,” he said. (Andrew Hunter, the Air Force acquisition head, later that day used a House Armed Services Committee hearing to also push the effort.)
How much support can be found in Congress isn’t clear at this point. Members did not weigh in on the proposal during either Kendall or Hunter’s hearings. But while speaking with reporters today, Kendall stressed that the concept does not impede congressional oversight authority because it only allows early activities.
“This is a limited authority. It would allow us to go through the preliminary design review phase in the design, so doing requirements trade offs, doing system engineering, maybe doing some risk reduction to move the program forward,” he said.
But this time around, Kendall said, things might be different — as lawmakers sitting on the House and Senate armed services and appropriations committees have become increasingly concerned about the growing threat, especially from China.
“We’ve had some pretty good responses from people I talked with,” he said. “We spent a lot of time trying to educate our four committees in particular about the severity of the threat, and what it’s doing, and how important time is. So I think there is a willingness to discuss this kind of initiative that might not have been there in the past.”
