Gregory T. Kiley
Some sixty years ago, one of our great Presidents, Dwight D. Eisenhower, warned us of a burgeoning military industrial complex in our Nation and its potential threat to freedom of innovation and national security itself. In hindsight, it appears he both underestimated the virtue of such a defense industrial base and the vice of such a system to ossifying processes and programs.
As President Eisenhower foresaw in his farewell address, “This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.”
Our country won the “Cold War” because of our Defense ecosystem. Advances in critical technologies were fueled by true public-private partnerships and developed platforms and systems such as the F-15 and F-16 fighter aircraft, Abrams and Bradley fighting vehicles, and nuclear Nimitz class carriers. These platforms continue to prove their worth in the modern battlespace. And, in many ways those critical technologies have all transitioned to this country’s commercial marketspace, which is the basis of our country’s economy.
The end of the Soviet Empire and the Cold War ushered in two new eras that have combined to threaten future National Security in ways seen and unseen by President Eisenhower. The United States experienced a Procurement Holiday in the 1990s, forcing defense industrial base consolidation and a more concentrated set of mega corporations. At the same time, the 1990s saw the explosion of the information age and technological progress.
The unintended consequence of the Cold War victory was foreshadowed by the remarks made by President Eisenhower in his farewell address:
“Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers. The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.”
For the Defense Industrial Base, end of the Cold War was a business and social disaster. The lack of new acquisition contracts, as well as massive workforce “brain drain” from the aerospace and defense sectors to those driven by the adaptation of critical technologies, created an aerospace and defense technological stagnation that is still present.
The Digital Divide that exists within our entire Defense Industrial Base illustrates the current technological stagnation. While Department of Defense program offices and labs are becoming “Digital Savvy”, creating a workforce that is on par with the best in the Silicon Valley, the industrial base creates the illusion that they are on par with the Silicon Valley in terms of product development simply by linking Information Technology (IT) systems and using “digital” in their marketing material.
But cursory glance at their results shows a much different story. Not only has the Industrial base not made the needed significant investment to have a world class Digital Microelectronics Engineering and Model Based Systems Engineering design and development environment, but they also still produce substandard products behind schedule, resulting in significant delays between fielding to initial operating capability (IOC), then from IOC to full operating capability (FOC).
The detrimental impacts to our country’s warfighting ability cannot be understated. Rather than being honest with their Board of Directors, the DoD, and Wall Street that they all need to significant re-capitalization investment to meet the requirements and demands of a “Digital Savvy” customer, the Defense Industrial Base seems to believe that by applying Silicon Valley design “buzzwords” to their World War II-based product development processes, they have gone “Digital.”
The curious relocation of some corporate Defense Industrial Base headquarters to the Washington, DC area was foreshadowed by yet another passage from President Eisenhower’s Farewell Address, “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” A fair assessment of these headquarter relocations is that it is an attempt to show the Washington, DC ecosystem that this industrial base is too important to fail, hence they are worthy of Federal government protection and/or assistance to allow them to continue as viable business entities.
Congress continues to wrestle with whether and how to provide funding for our technological industrial base. So when the Defense Industrial Base companies collectively approach Congress for the financial assistance needed for them to truly “go Digital”, it would behoove Congress to review the 1980’s Chrysler Loan Guarantees, using that process and that implementation to ensure the Industrial Base implements real change to operate as viable business entities; producing quality and cost competitive products for the DoD, providing the data and intellectual property (IP) for affordable sustainment and on-demand, agile modernization, as well as providing a warranty for those products.
Only then will the Federal Government heed these wise words from President Eisenhower’s Farewell Address, “We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
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