Center for Government Contracting Event Recap

Challenges with supply chains during and after COVID, production challenges supporting Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion, and deterring Chinese aggression have exposed significant challenges in the capacity of the defense industrial base to meet current and potential future operational contingencies.
Significant efforts are underway to address these challenges and DoD recently released the first-ever National Defense Industrial Strategy to guide the overall approach to strengthen the defense industrial base. What does the strategy mean for government and industry? The Baroni Center held a discussion on this critical question with the principal author of the strategy, an influential House member with deep industrial base experience, and a CEO of a major defense contractor.

In their book, Public Procurement for Innovation: Research and Development at the US Federal Level, nationally recognized public procurement experts Dolores Kuchina-Musina and Benjamin McMartin present a comprehensive analysis of the alternative contract vehicles used to promote innovation in the United States (US).

The PPBE Commission Final Report. "Defense Resourcing for the Future," was released on March 6. Moderated by Baroni Center Executive Director Jerry McGinn, the speakers included three Commission members: Chair Bob Hale, Vice Chair Ellen Lord, and Executive Director Ellen Sanger.

The George Mason University Costello College of Business' Greg and Camille Baroni Center for Government Contracting and the Acquisition Innovation Research Center (AIRC) cordially invite you to participate in a webinar on Agility through Appropriations.

The webinar discussed the equities and tensions between Congress and the Department of Defense (DoD), how those tensions impact the acquisition of weapon systems, and opportunities and challenges of colorless funding and portfolio management of funds.

What is the value of prototyping to the defense industrial base? In July of this year, we discussed the importance of prototyping for the Department of Defense to quickly and effectively innovate and field emerging technologies. This webinar will explore the importance of prototyping for the defense industrial base to include the different types of prototyping as well as various ways prototyping helps support the infrastructure and workforce.

The goal of the webinar is to discuss the challenges faced by the workforce to increase acquisition innovation and agility and explore approaches to modify incentives to achieve desired outcomes.

Against the backdrop of the increasing hostilities and competition globally, this panel discussed the importance of prototyping for the Department of Defense to quickly and effectively innovate and field emerging technologies. The discussion also included lessons learned from recent prototyping activities as well as best practices for meeting future requirements.

In a government acquisition context, the term “second sourcing” describes the practice of using at least two different suppliers to provide goods and services that are comparable or identical in form and/or function. Second sourcing was more commonly employed as a procurement method in the 1980s to introduce greater competition into the defense industrial base and cut costs for component parts, but it has become a relatively rare practice in modern defense procurement. This webinar examines second sourcing as a possible strategy within the defense acquisition toolkit to help accomplish this and other goals. Is it feasible, or even preferable, to revitalize second sourcing in a resource-constrained procurement environment geared toward single suppliers? If so, how do we do it best?

The goal of the webinar is to explore how a policy test laboratory can help effectively leverage modeling and simulation to enable acquisition policy changes to achieve desired outcomes.

In a Fireside Chat with Jerry McGinn, executive director of the Baroni Center, The Honorable Andrew Hunter, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics shared his priorities in the FY24 budget submission that is under consideration on Capitol Hill, the performance of current Air Force acquisition programs, as well as the sustainment and replenishment of munitions.