智能国防收购 借鉴法国采购改革[20091209].pdf

p o l i c y b r i e fSmart Defense Acquisition:Learning from French Procurement ReformD e c e m b e r 2 0 0 9by ethan b.KapsteinPresident barack obama has signaled a powerful determination to curb the growth of the defense procurement budget.Given the high fiscal costs of the federal governments response to the“Great recession”that began in 2008,the search for savings has become even more pressing.At$110 billion,the U.S.governments annual expenditure on defense acquisition the single largest discretionary item in the federal budget is an obvious target for reduction.fiscal responsibility,however,should not provide the sole or even the most compelling reason for acquisition reform.To the extent that our weapons are needlessly expensive,they deprive our forces of the quantities of firepower they need when they go in to harms way(think of the lack of armored vehicles in iraq and Afghanistan)and other needed goods and services.That makes efficient weapons procurement both a strategic and moral necessity.To date,the presidents procurement reform propos-als have been largely off the mark.His emphasis,for example,on changing the types of contracts that the Pentagon writes with the defense