{"id":14606,"date":"2018-02-01T14:04:28","date_gmt":"2018-02-01T14:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/02\/01\/heres-how-ellen-lord-grades-the-pentagons-most-expensive-programs\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:26:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:26:13","slug":"heres-how-ellen-lord-grades-the-pentagons-most-expensive-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/pentagon\/2018\/02\/01\/heres-how-ellen-lord-grades-the-pentagons-most-expensive-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s how Ellen Lord grades the Pentagon\u2019s most expensive programs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2013 As the Office of the Secretary of Defense <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/digital-show-dailies\/ausa\/2017\/10\/11\/pentagon-to-shift-bulk-of-major-defense-programs-to-services-and-people-may-go-too\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">gives more control<\/a> of major defense programs back to the individual services, the Pentagon\u2019s final acquisition, technology and logistics head has created a new system to maintain oversight and track how programs are performing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ellen Lord, who on Feb. 1 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/breaking-news\/2017\/08\/02\/this-is-the-pentagons-new-acquisition-structure\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">transitions<\/a> from AT&amp;L head to be the first undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, said she has developed and implemented a new system for tracking the 87 major defense acquisition programs (MDAPs) which together make up almost 96 percent of the Pentagon\u2019s acquisition funding each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The goal, she told reporters, is to be able to present Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis with a monthly \u201cstoplight\u201d report that gives him a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/digital-show-dailies\/air-force-association\/2017\/09\/20\/mattis-calls-for-closer-ties-with-industry-in-areas-where-it-languished\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">quick summary<\/a> of how the Pentagon\u2019s most vital programs are doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/pentagon\/2018\/02\/01\/the-pentagons-acquisition-office-is-gone-heres-what-the-next-120-days-bring\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/3919151.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">The Pentagon\u2019s acquisition office is gone. Here\u2019s what the next 120 days bring.<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The Pentagon has officially split its acquisition, technology and logistics office into two units. Now comes the hard part.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The system, which is color-based, was set up in September, and at this point Lord said there were \u201csix or so\u201d of the 87 MDAPS that would be marked as red.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Lord warned that status is not indicative of just one issue, but rather part of an all-in evaluation of where the program is and how it is meeting the needs of the combatant commanders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis does not just talk about programatics or about how we\u2019re doing versus that contractor. It backs up to the [combatant commands], the warfighter and what they need in the AOR and if they have enough of something,\u201d Lord said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAnd in some areas we might be constrained in supply, and that\u2019s a whole other area that we\u2019re talking about because we want to make sure that we\u2019ve got that demand signal appropriately and we\u2019re characterizing where we are on a program relative to demand signal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The plan is to do monthly program reviews between Lord\u2019s team in the new A&amp;S office and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/training-sim\/2017\/11\/09\/lord-looks-to-foster-high-potential-talent-with-workforce-development-plan\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">relevant officials<\/a> at the service level. And even if the score for a program doesn\u2019t vary much month-by month, Lord believes the exercise itself will pay off for her organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe process of doing it is probably the most important thing because it drives critical thinking and analysis,\u201d she explained. \u201cWhat we\u2019re doing is, frankly, trying to look at the forest versus the trees if you will. And what we want to do at senior leadership levels is make sure we focus our time and effort on the critical few programs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When Lord took office, she made it a priority to begin pushing decision authority on programs down from the OSD level to the individual services, something that was expressly desired by key members of the Congressional defense committees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As of Dec. 12, 73 of the 87 MDAPs were directly under service control \u2013 18 with the Army, 34 with the Navy, and 21 with the Air Force. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/digital-show-dailies\/reagan-defense-forum\/2016\/12\/03\/frank-kendall-on-the-ndaa-and-the-end-of-at-l\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">Critics<\/a> of pushing these down to the service level and out of OSD expressed concern that could lead to a lack of oversight, something Lord denied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAlthough we\u2019ve delegated significant programs that doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re not looking at those once a month and asking questions,\u201d Lord said. \u201cThere will be oversight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are 87 major defense acquisition programs in the Pentagon, and Ellen Lord has a new system for tracking each one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":27210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":19,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"5":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"8":{"categories":["acquisition","home"],"primary_category":"acquisition"},"9":{"categories":["home"],"primary_category":"home"}}},"categories":[160,36,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3378],"class_list":["post-14606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters","category-pentagon"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"DIXZYVZAARGCLI33DF35ZN4S54","arc_canonical_url":"\/pentagon\/2018\/02\/01\/heres-how-ellen-lord-grades-the-pentagons-most-expensive-programs\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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