The next big thing in defense contracting may be procurement security. On June 21, the Principal Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, Kari Bingen, testified before the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) on “Military Technology Transfer: Threats, Impacts, and Solutions for the Department of Defense.” In Ms. Bingen’s prepared testimony, she informed HASC that the Department of Defense (DoD) had established a “deliver uncompromised” initiative “to elevate the private sector’s focus on security.” That initiative “aims to establish security as a fourth pillar in acquisition, on par with cost, schedule, and performance, and to create incentives for industry to embrace security, not as a ‘cost center,’ but as a key differentiator.” The DoD had asked the MITRE Corporation to study the issue further, and it recently published its 37-page report on the matter, “Deliver Uncompromised – A Strategy for Supply Chain Security and Resilience in Response to the Changing Character of War.” So, what do you need to know about “Deliver Uncompromised”? The proposal is principally one of acquisition reform. Of the 15 proposed courses of action, the very first is to “Elevate Security as a Primary Metric in DoD Acquisition and Sustainment.” The report recommends that DoD “define requirements to incorporate new security measures, reward superior security measures in the source selection process, include contract terms that impose security obligations, and use contractual oversight to monitor contractor accomplishments.” This would have obvious ramifications for defense contractors, from how they write proposals to how their performance is evaluated. Security as the “fourth pillar.” MITRE makes specific recommendations on how to “Elevate Security as a Primary Metric in DoD Acquisition and Sustainment.” The first of these is to revise DoD Instruction 5000.02 to make security the fourth “pillar” of acquisition management, along with cost, schedule, and performance.
So, what do you need to know about “Deliver Uncompromised”?
