Interview with Douglas R. Bush, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology and Army Acquisition Executive

by Editorial Staff

As the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology and the Army Acquisition Executive, Douglas R. Bush has principal responsibility for overseeing and managing programs that acquire, test, deliver, and maintain critical military equipment and services for U.S. Army Soldiers and civilians.

Prior to joining DoD in 2019, Bush was deputy staff director of the House Armed Services Committee and earlier worked as a legislative assistant to several members of Congress and as a national security analyst for the Army. He holds an M.S. in national security studies from Georgetown University and a B.S. in political science from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.

The editors of Defense Acquisition magazine interviewed Assistant Secretary Bush in May 2024.

Q. At your swearing in, you mentioned several of your priorities: program execution and performance, software acquisition, security in acquisition, testing systems, and Army modernization. Have you made significant progress in these areas? Where do you see a need for more improvement? 

A. The Army acquisition team is performing at an incredible level. Not only are we doing the hard work of keeping the Army supplied and ready, we are also enabling an aggressive effort to modernize. At the same time, we are supporting conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East while preparing for potential conflict in the Pacific with China.

We have worked with Congress to obtain the new Software Pathway to enable faster, more agile software development and acquisition. Using other congressionally provided authorities such as Middle Tier of Acquisition, we are slashing the time needed to develop and field new, advanced, and needed capabilities from seven to 10 years down to four to six years. 

Some of our successes at achieving acquisition at speed include CTAPS [Cold Temperature and Arctic Protection System] which went from design to fielding from two-and-one-half years to just six months; the M10 Booker, our first new fighting vehicle in decades; the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle [AMPV], part of the Next Generation Combat Vehicle modernization priority, which were delivered to their first unit in March 2023; the Integrated Battle Command System [IBCS], which replaces eight different anti-ballistic missile defense command systems; the Next Generation Squad Weapon [NGSW], which is the first all-new small arms in six decades; and the Coyote Interceptor c-UAS [Counter Unmanned Aerial Systems]. When American soldiers started coming under drone attacks after the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the Rapid Acquisition Authority allowed the Army acquisition community to start securing the Coyote Interceptor c-UAS less than 30 days after receiving authorization to move ahead.

We are also enabling production at scale to supply our Warfighters, allies, and partners when conflicts arise. This has a deterrent effect on potential adversaries.

For example, we have significantly boosted domestic production of many different types of munitions to meet demands from Ukraine. Congressional funding allowed us to boost production of 155 mm artillery shells to about 9,000 per month at the start of the Ukraine war in February 2022. Production will reach close to 80,000 per month this fall, and we will exceed 100,000 a month by next summer.

Again, my team has excelled, and I could not be more proud. Although I thank them as often as I can, I also remind them that there is always more work to do.

Q. The defense industrial base has indicated a shift away from their previous “must-win” approach, particularly regarding fixed-price contracts. Due to consolidations and mergers, there has been a notable decrease in competitive procurement options. How would you propose tackling this challenge in the event of a future total no-bid scenario?  

A. Rising consolidations and mergers in the U.S. defense industry can lead to decreased competitive procurement options. The defense industrial base noted a shift away from the previous “must-win” approach to a less-competitive market environment, and a possibility of “no-bid,” as noted by the Industrial Capabilities Report to Congress. 

However, a review of the raw data from FY 2018 to present indicates a very stable, consistent rate of competition, without any serious indications that competitive procurements are decreasing. In the event of a total no-bid scenario, the standard protocol would be to reissue the requirement to industry, talk to industry to ensure requirements are well understood, and allow for more time. 

We also want to expand the reach for a requirement, so my program executive offices [PEOs] and contracting offices meet with industry and nontraditional defense companies and endeavor to bring in new entrants to the market. In addition, developing requests for information, industry days, and other market research opportunities prior to soliciting for a requirement provide broad dissemination of upcoming requirements and a basis for the response expectations to ensure adequate competition. 

Although consolidations and mergers can lead to a decrease in certain competitive markets, we have seen dramatic increases, for example, in the experimentation and prototyping opportunities through innovation-focused organizations such as the Defense Innovation Unit, AF-WERX, NavalX, and Army Futures Command. 

My team has excelled, and I could not be more proud. Although I thank them as often as I can, I also remind them that there is always more work to do.  

Greater use of acquisition approaches such as Other Transaction Authority and Middle Tier of Acquisition have proven beneficial and efficient strategies that enable the department to work with nontraditional companies to rapidly prototype novel solutions and advance successful ones to produce at scale. 

Many of our major programs are using agile acquisition practices, such as modular open systems architecture, to help drive competition throughout the life cycle of a program. These approaches will enable greater opportunities for technology upgrades and replacement of systems and components over time as opposed to closed-loop proprietary systems.

Q. The Deputy Secretary of Defense’s Replicator initiative holds significant promise, yet uncertainty remains regarding how these efforts will be procured, manufactured, and sustained especially considering the lack of clear funding. How is the department working to maintain investor interest and incentivize participation from nontraditional defense contractors and small businesses?  

A. First, Replicator is not the only tool in our toolbox for driving innovation, gaining and maintaining investor interest, and creating incentives for nontraditional defense contractors and small businesses to partner with the Army. The Army’s new Small Business Innovation Research [SBIR] and Prize Challenge initiatives drive small business and industry collaboration to identify and integrate innovative capabilities for the Army to conduct multidomain operations on the battlefields of today and tomorrow. 

In FY 2023, the Army launched several programs designed to incentivize primes and OEMs to integrate innovative small business technologies into their technology portfolio. The Army CATALYST program, xTechPrime, Army Intellectual Property Cadre, Army Tech Marketplace, and Project VISTA all employ varying mechanisms to incentivize teaming, protect intellectual property, deliver innovation at scale, and solidify the Army as a desirable business partner in the innovation ecosystem—certainly with small businesses, but also with other capital providers.

For instance, the Army’s SBIR and Small Business Technology Transfer [STTR] research programs invest approximately $400 million annually in technology prototype development at small firms across the country. In FY 2024, approximately $25 million was allocated for vehicle and payload development for small, attritable UAS akin to the Replicator program. Furthermore, the Army’s xTech program has worked with nearly 5,000 firms across the world evaluating applicability of commercial dual-use technologies to Army missions.

Returning to the subject of Replicator, the Army and the other Services benefit from the focused attention of the Deputy Secretary of Defense, the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Army senior leaders in accelerating procurement of capabilities the Army already planned to acquire and field to the force.

Overall, the Congress appropriated over $500 million in FY 2024 for Replicator. And while I cannot be specific on the amount of money allocated for the Army’s contributions to the Replicator initiative, I will note we are active participants in Tranche 1. The DoD proposed roughly another $500 million in FY 2025 for continuing these Replicator efforts.

Q. Examining the Army’s helicopter fleet history reveals a series of cancellations: Comanche in 2004, Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter in 2008, Armed Aerial Scout in 2014, and Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft in 2024. How should the helicopter industrial base respond?   

A. Recent conflicts in Ukraine and Israel have shaped the path forward for investing in the future fight. Uncrewed, attributable aerial reconnaissance assets to detect, identify, locate, and report enemy assets of high value in a contested air defense environment coupled with manned platforms will preserve our human fighting force in the onset of large-scale combat operations. This is our path forward for aerial reconnaissance.

The industrial base should respond favorably to the trajectory that we are on.

The Army is committed to helicopters as an integral technology across the battlefield. They provide an ability to move troops and supplies, provide close air support for troops in combat, attack enemies, and evacuate wounded Soldiers. The Army is demonstrating this commitment by developing a long-range assault aircraft, pursuing an additional five years of utility helicopter production, and entering production for an enhanced heavy lift helicopter. 

Furthermore, the Army is transitioning technology investments developed under the Future Vertical Lift initiatives to the existing fleets to maintain competitive advantage over our adversaries. Continued research and development partnership with industry to reduce pilot workload and address speed of technology evolution through a modular approach to network and sensing will maintain the cutting-edge rotorcraft workforce.

Q. With rapidly increasing use of artificial intelligence [AI] across many functional areas (including warfighting and acquisition), what measures is the Army taking to minimize risks associated with the use of AI in our systems and program offices? What changes are needed in relation to acquisition workforce training?   

A. My office is developing a responsible AI implementation policy that will guide programs/users on how to minimize risk. To truly empower our Soldiers with decision advantage to leverage data quickly and effectively, the Army is building trusted AI capabilities that can be scaled across programs.  

We introduced Project Linchpin, initiated under the PEO for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare & Sensors, to develop these capabilities and track lessons learned for trusted AI delivery across the Army. Project Linchpin is working to establish standards, process, and governance through a centrally managed program with a decentralized architecture leveraging key design principles—traceability, observability/orchestration, replaceability, and (automated) consumption. We intend to maximize DoD and Intelligence Community AI/Machine Learning (ML) investments to establish a secure and trusted ML Operation environments. The goal is to create a collaborative and competitive ecosystem of industry partners for continuous assessment and integration of best-of-breed industry AI/ML products, solutions, and services enabled by a rapid multicontracting strategy. 

Regarding the training needs to support these AI/ML efforts, we began to place heavy emphasis on building foundational-level digital literacy skills across the Army acquisition workforce in support of the Army’s digital transformation journey throughout 2023, which continues today. To be successful on this highly technical journey, we emphasized the importance of reskilling and upskilling our acquisition workforce. 

Software is pervasive across all aspects of Army acquisition, and many layers and levels of that software are embedded in our products. So, having a baseline, functional level of digital literacy across the workforce helps ensure that our program managers [PMs] can best manage their cost, schedule, and performance; our contracting professionals understand the need to build in time for various iterations; and our testers are agile throughout the development process. A combination of training, academic institution partnerships, and tuition assistance programs with a digital focus was introduced or expanded to empower the workforce.

The Army Director of Acquisition Career Management (DACM) Office, in concert with the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Data Engineering and Software and the Army Civilian Career Management Activity, leveraged Udemy, an online digital learning platform, to offer the Army Acquisition Workforce a curated, digital foundations learning pathway with courses focusing on AI/ML, cloud, data science, internet of things, among others. 

Another online, self-directed training opportunity afforded to our acquisition workforce includes digital upskilling courses within DAU. Simultaneously, the DACM promoted the Data Driven Leadership course hosted by Carnegie Mellon University to the O-5/GS-14 level leadership and above to educate and train them in data management, data science, decision making, emerging technology, change management, data privacy, and security. 

Lastly, the Army DACM is promoting its MOREin’24 campaign that focuses on additional digital upskilling opportunities on the Udemy platform as well as newly deployed DAU credentials like the Agile DoD Team Member and AI Foundations for the DoD. Combined, these efforts aim to minimize digital competency gaps, upskill the workforce, and help grow leadership with a digital understanding now and into the future.

Q. What needed areas of focus do you see for PMs and PEOs managing your large programs and portfolios? And how might DAU support this?    

A. The cornerstone of the Army is our people. They are and will remain our number one priority. They provide us a clear advantage against any adversary and are the most important component of our modernization efforts. PMs and PEOs remain committed to employee professional development. The pace of change in technical, process, and digital tools demands that employees be committed to continued professional development to keep their skills current. To propel this mindset, the Army continues its dedication to providing the right training opportunities for the workforce to grow their own careers and elevate their skills and foundational learning. 

The pace of change in technical, process, and digital tools demands that employees be committed to continued professional development to keep their skills current.  

Supervisors empower the workforce by encouraging them to adopt and increase cross-functional training focused on team building over individual silos. In short, a renewed focus on both supporting the systems being developed and the methods used to develop them is highly beneficial. 

One example of this is digital acquisition—specifically, Model Based Systems Engineering, advanced manufacturing, data analytics, and autonomy. DAU is working on courseware for these topics and is moving ahead with other platforms like Udemy and partnerships with Carnegie Mellon University to fill current training gaps.

Another key focus area is identifying intellectual property—analyzing exact needs, and how to appropriately contract to obtain it. For example, we want to embrace Agile software development. All new software efforts require modern software practices in the form of agile development and Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment [CI/CD]. We need to remember software development is a marathon and what we may start with in software development should iterate over time. 

Together, we must continue to leverage a Soldier-centered approach, and design and develop intuitive solutions that bolster our community of Warfighters, civilians, and organizational partners in the work they do every day for the security of our nation.

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