Cheat Sheet

Government and industry officials seeking to push a new technology through the military's rapid-acquisition bureaucracy might appreciate a new cheat sheet, issued by the Joint Rapid Acquisition Cell, outlining key milestones of the process.

The four-page information paper, issued on Jan. 31, summarizes new guidance stemming from the November 2013 update of the defense acquisition system, promulgated in the interim DOD instruction 5000.02. One of the goals is simplifying the approval process for valid rapid-fielding requirements. For example, the creation of milestone decision memoranda -- a ubiquitous action in military procurement -- should be streamlined in line with the urgent need in question, it states.

"An acceptable approved ADM may, again, as appropriate to the urgency of the need and the product being acquired, may simply be the approval signature of the [milestone decision authority] on a briefing slide/document," according to the information paper.

The document also notes that acquisition officials should use parallel, rather than sequential, processes for moving projects forward.