Decrying a history of troubled weapons programs based largely on "paper proposals" rather than sound and proven technology, the Pentagon's top acquisition official has instructed the services to ensure all programs pit two or more teams' prototypes against each other in early development phases. John Young, the acting under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, writes in a Sept. 19 memorandum that the goal is to avoid "myriad technical issues" during the "costly" system design and development phase...
