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What is Evolutionary Acquisition?
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Single Step vs. Evolutionary Acquisition
The DoD 5000 outlines 2 different
strategies for acquiring new
weapon systems:
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According to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the DOD acquisition process
is not getting new systems to the field quickly enough. Our current average
acquisition response time is 10 years, longer for major weapon systems. We
are delivering technology that is at least a generation old. To reverse this
trend, we must change our ways of doing business. This starts by taking advantage
of private sector expertise and forging a new compact with warfighter.
Undersecretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology, & Logistics) quote from 12 Apr 02 Memo on Evolutionary Acquisition and Spiral Development:
"Evolutionary acquisition and spiral development are methods that will allow us to reduce our cycle time and speed the delivery of advanced capability to our warfighters. These approaches are designed to develop and field demonstrated technologies for both hardware and software in manageable pieces. Evolutionary acquisition and spiral development also allow insertion of new technologies and capabilities over time. Therefore, these approaches provide the best means of getting advanced technologies to the warfighter quickly while providing for follow-on improvements in capability."
"EA and SD...are focused on providing the warfighter with an initial capability which may be less than the full requirement as a trade-off for earlier delivery, agility, affordability, and risk reduction."
Elements for Success
Evolutionary Acquisition is characterized
by three essential elements:
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Culture Change
Evolutionary Acquisition requires a culture change
throughout the Air Force.
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Acquisition professional awareness
Acquisition professionals must become familiar with emerging technologies.
They must also understand the warfighter's requirement and how the system
will be used. The warfighter relies on the acquisition professional to provide
options that get the needed capability quickly.
DOD
Collaboration with warfighter
The warfighter and acquisition professionals must partner during the JCIDS process, continuing the dialogue throughout the life-cycle. This
ensures the right capabilities are provided as technology and requirements
evolve. They must also understand that time-phased requirements are the preferred
approach to documenting capability needs.
Test organizations involved early
Test agencies must become involved early in the planning process to understand
the requirements for each increment. This will enable them to plan for a suitable
test program and ensure that the right requirements are tested.
The use of seamless verification techniques help to smoothly implement an EA strategy.
Contractor expertise applied
The
contractor must work with acquisition professionals and warfighter representatives to help
define achievable, useful capability rapidly. The commercial community has
tremendous insight into emerging technologies and how they might be used to
improve operational capability. This involvement could occur as early as the concept refinement phase when Analysis of Alternatives are conducted and the technology development strategy documented.
Understand the overall system goal
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Operational requirements. Know which requirements are the most important and why. Combine this with knowledge of current and emerging technologies, and acquirer will be able to assist the user/operator in defining the time-phased requirements throughout the JCIDS process. |
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The concept of operations (CONOPS). This document allows you understand how the war fighter intends to use the system so that you can help shape the capabilities to be provide in the initial and follow-on increments. |
Build a strategy to achieve useful capability quickly
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A defined first increment that provides to the war fighter an initial, useful level of capability that is supportable. |
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A plan for incrementally achieving a desired total capability that adheres to life cycle cost-effectiveness. |
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A flexible, well-planned system architecture that allows the system to be designed and implemented incrementally (modular open system architecture). |
Maintain dialogue and feedback
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Continued team focus and dialogue among decision-makers and stakeholders. Reality says that requirements will change and new technologies will become available. It is critically important that you maintain open communication to leverage these changes to your advantage and provide dominant war fighting capability. |
Evolutionary Acquisition
By using an EA strategy, you can break up those technologies into blocks, using mature, lower-risk technologies in the initial increment, and planning future increments to capture higher-risk technologies once they've matured. This gets a useful, supportable system to the field quickly, meeting the most immediate needs of the warfighter. Follow-on requirements will grow the system to its full capability.
Single Step
In a traditional, single-step acquisition program, you include a variety of technologies -some low risk, some high risk - in order to achieve the weapon systems' full capability. This requires that you plan and manage certain high-risk technology items, resulting in longer development timelines with the added likelihood of schedule slips. Meanwhile, the user is without any additional capability for an extended period of up to 10-15 years or more.
What is EA?
1. "An evolutionary approach delivers capability in increments, recognizing up front the need for future capability improvements... The success of the strategy depends on the consistent and continuous definition of requirements and the maturation of technologies that lead to disciplined development and production of systems that provide increasing capability toward a material concept." (Department of Defense Instruction 5000.2, Operation of Defense Acquisition System, 12 May 2003)
2. An acquisition strategy that defines, develops, produces or acquires, and fields an initial hardware or software increment (or block) of operational capability. It is based on technologies demonstrated in relevant environments, time-phased requirements, and demonstrated manufacturing or software deployment capabilities. Follow-on increments will provide additional capability, growing the system over time to meet the evolving needs of the warfighter. (APRD 63-1, 10 July 2003)
Why EA?
Secretary Rumsfeld stated that the acquisition process has not been getting new systems to the field quickly enough and technology used in these systems was not current. However, with an EA strategy, operational capabilities can be provided in a shorter period of time, followed by subsequent increments of capability that accommodate improved technology and allowing full and adaptable systems over time.
What is an Increment?
An increment (or block) is a militarily useful and supportable operational capability that can be effectively developed, produced or acquired, deployed, and sustained. Each increment of capability will have its own set of thresholds and objectives set by the user. (CJCS 3170.01D, 12 March 2004; AFPO 63-1, 10 July 2003)
An increment accommodates three activities:
- Develop new capabilities supporting the operational requirements and
goals of the system
- Exploit opportunities to insert new technologies that reduce cost
of ownership or accelerate fielding of new capabilities (resulting from tech
demos)
- Refine current capabilities based on user feedback, testing, or experimentation
(AFI 63-123 EA for C2 Systems, 1 Apr 2000)
Do I have to use an EA Strategy?
No. However, EA is the preferred approach to satisfy operational needs and to reduce the acquisition response time. The primary goal of EA is to field, in the shortest time practicable, mature technology that satisfies a validated need. The following shows some history on the policy relative to the use of EA Strategies:
| 1995 |
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In a 12 January 1995 memorandum from the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition and Technology) cites EA as an alternative practice to be assessed by program managers when developing the acquisition strategy for individual programs. |
| 2001 |
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DoDI 5000.2 calls EA a "preferred strategy" |
| 2002 |
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USD (AT&L) 19 Jan 02 memo mandates the use of EA for all programs"… by the end of FY02, 100% of defense programs ... (will) have an evolutionary acquisition or spiral development implementation plan in place....I realize that there will be rare cases in which evolutionary acquisition is not the best acquisition strategy. In those cases, the plan should demonstrate why evolutionary acquisition is not appropriate and what alternative steps are being taken to reduce cycle time." |
| 2003 |
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DoDI 5000.2, CJCSI 3170.01, and AFPD 63-1 all emphasize EA as the "preferred strategy" |
Spiral Development 
Spiral Development is an iterative process for developing a
defined set of capabilities within one increment. Each increment will
include multiple spirals. This provides interaction among user, tester, and
developer throughout system development.
In
each spiral, requirements are refined and allocated
to the design. Then coding,
fabricating, and integration is accomplished, either physically or
via modeling. The system or model is then tested
and results assessed. The learning from this
spiral is then applied to the next spiral. This process is repeated until
we have fully developed a system concept, then a development baseline,
and finally, a capability that meets warfighter needs.
