My colleague James Hasik recently published his newest book, Securing the MRAP: Lessons Learned in Marketing and Military Procurement. In this episode of the Acquisition Talk podcast, we listen in on an excellent event hosted by the Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University. It starts with a conversation between Senior Fellows Stephanie Halcrow and James Hasik. Afterwards, Stephanie moderates a panel discussion with:
The MRAP, of course, was an urgent program in the mid-to-late 2000s that addressed the IED threat. Basically, it is a ground vehicle with advanced suspension, greater ground clearance, a v-shaped hull, and kevlar panels that make it survivable against enemy IEDs. Even though the basic problem had been solved in South Africa many years before, the interesting part is how this solution was not immediately obvious given all the different ways you can defeat IEDs. Many different groups of people -- some of which didn't even know each other -- contributed to the genesis of the MRAP program, and then rapid scaling to 5,000 vehicles in less than 19 months after the JUONS requirement.
It is truly an amazing story, and the event really brought out some great lessons learned: