Priority-Setting and Strategic Sourcing in the Naval Research, Development, and Technology Infrastructure

Kenneth Saunders, Bruno Augenstein, Paul Bracken, Glenn Krumel, John Birkler, James Chiesa, Cullen M. Crain, R. Richard Heppe, Richard F. Hoglund, Brian Nichiporuk

ResearchPublished 1995

This report suggests ways in which the Dept. of the Navy might realize more value from its increasingly constrained research, development, and technology (RD&T) dollars. The study was motivated by the Navy's immediate policy needs in connection with the 1995 round of Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) and its longer-term need to make the best use of its resources. Suggestions are presented in three parts. First, the authors develop and apply a framework for setting funding priorities in the Naval RD&T infrastructure. Second, the authors discuss alternative RD&T procurement arrangements that are seeing increasing use in the private sector and that have been used in various parts of the government. These are commonly called "smart buying," but the authors use the term "strategic sourcing." Third, the authors present a speculative combination of the priority-setting and strategic-sourcing considerations of the first two parts. Using a reinterpretation of the orthogonal plot developed earlier in the report, it suggests a way to help determine which parts of the Naval RD&T infrastructure are best suited for alternative procurement arrangements. It also suggests a way to determine which facilities might be involved.

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Document Details

  • Copyright: RAND Corporation
  • Availability: Web Only
  • Year: 1995
  • Pages: 144
  • Document Number: MR-588-NAVY/OSD

Citation

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Saunders, Kenneth, Bruno Augenstein, Paul Bracken, Glenn Krumel, John Birkler, James Chiesa, Cullen M. Crain, R. Richard Heppe, Richard F. Hoglund, and Brian Nichiporuk, Priority-Setting and Strategic Sourcing in the Naval Research, Development, and Technology Infrastructure. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1995. https://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR588.html.
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The work was carried out in the Acquisition and Technology Policy Center of RAND's National Defense Research Institute, a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, and the defense agencies. It was funded by the Deputy for Resources, Analysis and Policy (RA&P) in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition. It was part of a larger effort funded by RA&P, which additionally covered the engineering, production, and support parts of the Navy's infrastructure, and in which a number of other research organizations took part.

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