Streamlining the Navy acquisition process

The Navy has a formal process to acquire weapon systems. Through the years it has developed into a lengthy and costly process which is detailed in DoD Instructions 5000.1 and 5000.2 and Navy implementing instructions. This thesis explores the details of these instructions and the "real world" implementation of them. It has as its objective, the elimination of excessive and redundant documentation, a decrease in effort to make the necessary changes as it moves up the review chain, to shorten the time required to award a contract and to decrease the effort required to support a milestone decision. The analysis of existing acquisition instructions was supplemented by interviews with personnel who work with Naval material acquisition at the Program Manager level. Concepts are discussed concerning giving the Program Manager more authority, providing more control of program funds, upgrading the quality of the acquisition specialists in the officer corps, providing more and better training for the civilian work force supporting the Program Manager, decreasing the "paper work" effort both in the preparation of procurement request and in the justification to support a milestone decision and to "streamline" the review process at each milestone point.