Establishing a Holistic Defense Framework for Requirements and Acquisition Processes

The underlying premise to this topic is that the Department of Defense has a desire to develop and acquire capabilities from a joint rather than Service specific viewpoints This premise has been supported in numerous directives from former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with regards to operational planning results from the Honorable Pete Aldridge ridge in the Joint Defense Capabilities Study and finally from recommendations from both the 2001 and 2006 Quadrennial Defense Reviews (QDRs) This topic investigates how the Department of Defense should organize and synchronize the requirements and acquisition processes to provide the best capabilities to the joint warfighter in an economic environment with diminishing discretionary dollars This paper investigates our current system and provides recommendations on how to transition from these premises to a workable system.