Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) on Tuesday dismissed concerns voiced recently by the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer regarding pending legislation that would strengthen the role of the military services chiefs in the acquisition system.
McCain, who spoke at the American Action Forum in Washington, said the concerns raised by Frank Kendall, the under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, were evidence of a “classic turf fight in the Pentagon.”
"Anyone at AT&L who believes the status quo is satisfactory is not reflecting the concerns of the taxpayers of America," McCain said. "We're not eliminating AT&L."
Provisions in McCain's proposed fiscal year 2016 defense authorization bill, however, would sideline AT&L in a variety of ways in favor of newly empowered military service chiefs, who would have milestone decision authority over acquisition programs.
Kendall, who made his concerns known to reporters last month, said McCain's acquisition reform efforts are not as transparent as those of House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-TX), whose version of the FY-16 authorization bill directs that the service chiefs only provide an assessment of their role in the acquisition system.
"I talked to [McCain] in November -- I think that's the last time we had a conversation," Kendall said after a May 19 speech in Tysons Corner, VA. "I talked to his staff since the first of the year two or three times. We didn't get a draft of what he was going to do so we didn't have a chance to interact on that.”
It remains unclear how Thornberry's team will reconcile the differences in the legislation when it reaches a conference committee.
"Senator McCain has had a more closed process so far," said Kendall, who worked directly with Thornberry on a variety of acquisition reform measures in the House bill.
Meanwhile, Kendall asserts that DOD does not require legislative action to further involve the military service chiefs in acquisition.
"I don't think we need any legislative changes to do that," he said. "I just think we need to do some things internally to strengthen the relationship."
McCain, however, said Tuesday that he would be glad to provide anyone at AT&L a "long list" of failed acquisition programs.
Consider, he said, the termination of the Future Combat System, which cost tens of billions of dollars and operated under AT&L's oversight.
"We've never seen a single result," McCain said, adding that it was hard for him to return to Arizona and argue for more defense spending when such gross mismanagement is allowed to occur.
McCain said he once asked the chief of naval operations who was responsible for a $2.4 billion cost overrun on the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier program.
"He said 'I don't know,'" McCain said. "There's got to be some responsibility."
Greater authority for the service chiefs, however, would come with greater accountability in that the legislation would require the services to pay a 3 percent penalty to a rapid prototyping fund if a program experiences a Nunn-McCurdy cost breach. -- Tony Bertuca