The Department of Defense (DoD) has a long history of seeking improvements in the way it goes about buying new weapon systems. In the past two decades alone, DoD has mounted two distinct movements that each carried the title "Acquisition Reform" (AR).' In the 1980s, reform efforts focused on reducing "waste, fraud, and abuse" in the system. In the 1990s, the emphasis shifted toward trying to make the acquisition process more responsive, effective, and efficient i.e., "faster, better, cheaper." Initiatives launched in the 1990s to support the latter goals included legislative changes to allow for more streamlined procurements, reductions in internal paperwork and required reviews, greater use of commercial practices, and expanded attempts to use the private sector to do more of the jobs traditionally done by government. DoD also sought ways to make it easier and more attractive for companies that previously had never worked for the DoD to begin pursuing military contracts; this was seen as a way to allow the military to tap into the expanded creativity and innovative prowess in developing and applying new technology that had come to the fore in the private sector, particularly in the 1990s.

In the Department of Defense, 63 distinct acquisition reform (AR) initiatives were undertaken from 1989 to 2002. By looking at what the AR movement "was" in the 1990s (by describing the initiatives launched under its name) and by letting acquisition personnel describe in their own words how their work was affected by those initiatives, the authors seek to shed light on what the AR movement has and has not accomplished in terms of changing the way the acquisition process works.

Center of Military History Publication 51-3-1. By J. Ronald Fox, et al. Discusses reform initiatives from 1960 to the present and concludes with prescriptions for future changes to the acquisition culture of the services, DoD, and industry.