Procurement

The United States both manufactures drones domestically and purchases drones from foreign suppliers.

Kickback and procurement fraud schemes often involve creating sham companies or using associates to bill for services that were not provided and then returning money to insiders as kickbacks.

A common form of a kickback scheme involves individuals creating companies and billing government or institutional entities for services not provided, with illicit payments directed to the officials who arranged the contracts.

Qatar placed a $12 billion order for 36 advanced F-15 fighter jets in 2017.

NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program used a milestone-based contracting model that funded private companies to reach key technical milestones instead of relying on traditional government procurement, and that approach helped catalyze the emergence of commercial space companies such as SpaceX and Boeing.

Defense acquisition reform proposals include awarding larger and longer-duration contracts to incentivize defense companies to invest in production capacity and workforce training.

Defense acquisition reform proposals include replacing program executive offices (PEOs) with portfolio acquisition executives (PAEs) to create a single accountable official with greater decision-making authority over acquisition portfolios.

Defense acquisition reform proposals include revising the contract protest process to discourage frivolous claims and accelerate adjudication of protests.