Gen. Joseph Martin, vice chief of staff of the U.S. Army, said changes to the service’s acquisition process have helped speed up modernization efforts and deployment of new equipment to warfighters, the Army website reported Friday.
Congress has helped the Army fund rapid prototyping initiatives through other transition authorities and middle-tier acquisition authorities. The availability of prototypes has allowed soldiers to test new platforms and offer feedback before the service makes a major investment.
"If we need to fail early, we're not waiting until we get way down the road on a program to determine that's not the direction we need to be going in," Martin said.
He also mentioned the benefit of soldier touchpoints or limited user tests. "Soldier touchpoints are fantastic because they give us feedback that we would have otherwise had to wait on,” Martin noted.