Pentagon Prepares to Unveil Better Buying Power 3.0

WASHINGTON, March 19, 2015 – By Nick Simeone DoD News

Pentagon officials are preparing to unveil the latest version of Better Buying Power, a multibillion-dollar equipment and service-buying program aimed at improving the acquisition process while maintaining the nation’s significant technological edge on the battlefield, the department’s chief acquisition officer said here yesterday.

Frank Kendall, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, told a defense conference that Better Buying Power 3.0 will be largely about innovation, excellence and maintaining technological superiority -- “the things we can do that will make a substantial difference and give us a significant edge for a decade or more on future battlefields.”

More Capability, More Value

The Defense Department introduced Better Buying Power in 2010 to extract more capability for the warfighter and more value for the taxpayer. “This is largely about efficiency and productivity,” Kendall said.

The new version, which will roll out in the weeks ahead, will bring the intelligence community further into the acquisition process, Kendall said. It also will be more responsive and agile to threats while taking full advantage of quickly advancing technologies, including countering what he said is a growing threat of anti-satellite technology posed by Russia and China.

 “We are starting to do something about this, but we really haven’t made a great deal of progress yet,” he said. “We rely on a small number of very capable and very expensive satellites that are increasingly at risk, and that trend is going to continue to get worse.”