The race between Cyber tools budgets and the approval process in the U.S.
This post is also available in: 
עברית (Hebrew)
U.S Air Force officials are working to develop an “effective” procurement model for buying equipment and services related to activities in the cyber domain, says Richard Lombardi, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition integration.
Too often, technology for cyber tools advances at a pace far faster than the Pentagon’s methodical process to procure traditional weapon systems can accommodate. Aircraft often take a decade or longer to field. “The budget process just doesn’t work for it,” Lombardi told a breakfast group hosted by the Air Force Association in Washington.
According to Aviation Week this is not a new goal. Military and industry officials have espoused a need for a special, rapid acquisition process for cyber tools for years now.
iHLS – Israel Homeland Security
Lombardi says a key will be the ability to “get within the budget cycle” so that service officials can quickly allocate money when needed without having to wait for approvals.
Officials are also looking at incremental deliveries of technologies, or how to “spiral things out” as opposed to a “big bang” delivery, Lombardi says. Spiral acquisition for traditional weapon systems proved problematic. In the case of the Global Hawk, the Air Force’s poster child for spiral acquisition, the program’s requirements and cost grew too big and configuration control became a problem.
Lombardi offered no timeline for this establishment of a new cyber procurement model.
