The January-February 2018 edition of the Defense AT&L Magazine is now available! This latest edition of the magazine features a series of outstanding articles on a range of defense acquisition and sustainment related topics, including:

• A Meeting of the Minds: Expanding Training and Understanding Between Industry and Government -- A better mutual understanding is needed of Department of Defense and industry processes and motivators. This can be achieved through joint training and recurring joint analysis of acquisition processes.
• Defense Logistics Agency: A New Strategy for a New Environment -- Key objectives in the Defense Logistics Agency’s new strategic plan are enhanced industry, government and allied partnerships; rapid delivery of mission capabilities; and an enduring global presence.
• Disaster Preparedness in DoD: Hurricanes and Terrorist Attacks Require the Same Preparations -- A terrorist attack could be as deadly and as damaging as a hurricane; loss of a sewage treatment system could prove as serious as a biological attack. But training for one type of event supplies the know how to deal with the other.
• Converting Data Into Decisions: Learning From Cost and Case Studies -- Cost management analysis, case studies, and improved communication skills can improve the performance of multiple acquisition career fields in a time of tight budgets.
• New Defense Health Agency System to Manage Nurses’ Workloads: Optimizing Patient Care at Walter Reed -- The largest U.S. military treatment facility established a modernized internet-based system, managing the hours of more than 7,000 nurses and maintaining quality care for more than 1 million patients yearly.
• Riding the Crest of the Data Revolution -- The data revolution enhances the collection and analysis of large amounts of data. This dramatically improves system performance by increasing system availability and lowering operating costs.
• Sun Tzu and the Art of Cyberwar -- The wisdom of an ancient Chinese strategist is widely quoted in military circles today and is as applicable in cyberwar as on the conventional battlefield.
• SOFWERX’s “Combustion Chamber” of Innovation -- The U.S. Special Operations Command has a military-industry joint effort called SOFWERX where ideas and information are exchanged to create a “combustion chamber” for innovative solutions to warriors’ needs.
• GAO Rulings in Contract Protests: The Importance of Documentation -- Recent rulings by the Government Accountability Office shed light on how government contract officers can award contacts that can prevail against protests by disappointed bidders.
• DMSMS Management: After Years of Evolution, There’s Still Room for Improvement -- Here’s a look at what has changed over the last 40 years on Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Shortages.

This new Defense AT&L Magazine issue is chock full of excellent and interesting articles. Encourage you to check them out. A couple of articles in particular that I’d encourage you to take note of are Defense Logistics Agency: A New Strategy for a New Environment and (a topic which we’d blogged about earlier last month) and DMSMS Management: After Years of Evolution, There’s Still Room for Improvement, the latter co-authored by one of our DAU Mid-Atlantic Region logistics faculty members (and a topic which we frequently blog about, including last month announcing the launch of new DAU DMSMS training, and again earlier this week announcing the winners of the DoD DMSMS Awards).

Finally, congratulations also to the Defense AT&L Magazine editor and production staff for winning the Association of Marketing and Communications Professionals (MarCom) Gold Award, the team’s sixth award over the last four years. Well done!