As a current servicemember, I personally want to see less effort on buying new stuff and more effort on reforming the procurement system. Quality control and price controls are completely broken and/or the oversight just isn't being enforced correctly. A few examples:
- The LCS. We started buying them before the technology was mature. You don't build/buy a ship before all the parts are ready. It's just stupid. And why did the Navy go from "we're going to buy 1 type" to "we're going to buy both types"?
- The San Antonio LPD. The lead ship spent 10 months as a pier attraction in Bahrain, halfway through deployment, because they couldn't open the well deck. Seriously? It's a transport! It's supposed to be able to open the well deck. We're well past the days of Marines climbing down cargo nets to board the landing craft.
- The Ford class CVN. Another prime example of building and buying before ready. The brand-new catapult system - it's just a catapult, no biggie, it only launches aircraft off the ship - isn't ready to go and yet we're already building the lead ship.
- The F-35. Need I say more? We're already buying them and the program is way, way, WAY over budget. $1.7bn for repairs and modifications to the ones we already have. And why did it take until the 6th-7th batches for the Pentagon to hammer Lockheed Martin with a clause forcing LM to pay out-of-pocket for modifications?
/rant