On Feb. 8th, 2012, Bob Brewin wrote for Nextgov on the DOD's approach to acquiring cyber capabilities. The article focused on Gen. William Shelton, commander of USAF Space Command and the overseer of the AF's cyberspace operations. According to the article, Gen. Shelton decried the US military's "industrial age" approach to cyber capability acquisitions. For example, Gen. Shelton argued that DOD's current approach to acquiring cyber capabilities is similar to acquiring aircraft: the process takes years. However, unlike aircraft, new developments in cyber occur in a matter of "days or months."
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On Feb. 8th, 2012, Bill Gertz also wrote for the Washington Times on the Pentagon's cyber-capability acquisition process. The Washington Times article mirrored the Nextgov article. Notably, the Washington times article quoted Frank Kendall, acting undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics:
“The technologies move extremely quickly . . . We have to react instantaneously to many of the threats. We can’t sit around and wait for a [Defense Acquisition Board] or a [Joint Requirements Oversight Council] for these things. So we got to take it outside the conventional system for the major long-term weapons system entirely.”
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