Air Force Contingency Contracting
Reachback and Other Opportunities for Improvement
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Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom have placed great demands on the Air Force's highly skilled contracting workforce. This report examines "reachback" — the use of contracting capability outside the theater of operations to accomplish contracting tasks for customers in the theater — as a potential means for reducing the deployment burden on military personnel. The authors analyze after-action reports written by contingency contracting officers (CCOs) who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, the results of focus groups with CCOs, interviews with subject matter experts, and purchasing data, and conclude that reachback might improve performance in some areas because of greater personnel continuity, standardization of processes, and the ability to access personnel with higher-level skills. Although reachback has the potential to reduce deployments and increase the effectiveness of some contracting functions, there is also a need for policy and procedural changes to address other causes of stress on contracting officers, so that they can concentrate more fully on their primary duty of purchasing goods and services for the warfighter.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Introduction
Chapter Two
What Contingency Contracting Officers Do
Chapter Three
Reachback Potential
Chapter Four
The Impact of Reachback
Chapter Five
Other Issues Related to CCO Stress and Contracting Efficiency
Chapter Six
Conclusions and Recommendations
Appendix A
General Information About AFCAP, AFCee, and the JCC Reachback Branch
Appendix B
Analysis Methodology for CCO After Action Reports
Appendix C
Joint Contingency Contracting System Data
Appendix D
Protocol used for CCO Focus Groups
Research conducted by
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