Due to increasing political tensions, the procurement of required weapon
systems and supply products needed to satisfy a country's defense needs, in short,
Defense Acquisition Management (DAM), is currently under the spotlight. Therefore,
the question arises as to how DAM is structured and executed in project management
across different countries, and what lessons can be derived from comparing these
approaches. It also raises the question of whether DAM (strategic management of
overall defense requirements, including the supplier base) is fully implemented, or if
countries concentrate solely on modeling sub-concepts within Defense Procurement
(DP) (with a focus on armaments). For this purpose, this chapter analyzes published
models for DP. The database comprises 76 models from 34 countries. The findings
reveal four key observations: First, there is a great variety of models, indicating that DP
knowledge is not yet consolidated. There are national peculiarities and different views
of DP in individual cases. Second, an imbalance in the relevance of individual model
elements is recognizable. Demand management is addressed in a high proportion,
indicating that DP models often cater to what future military users require. In contrast,
the subordinate tasks of strategic procurement, and in particular, the operational
ordering process, are rarely mentioned. They can be described as a “blind spot” in DP
models. Strategic procurement tasks and processes are mentioned but are usually only
focused on partial aspects (e.g., definition of the planning framework), not elaborated
and formulated in terms of content as a link between demand management and
operational procurement. Lastly, the user forms the conceptual bracket and the
orientation point for many DP models. The “utilization and implementation” section
concludes many models, but without defining the interface between procurement and
equipping the user. Furthermore, an outward orientation, i.e., towards suppliers and the
procurement market, remains underrepresented both strategically and on the user side,
and procurement is too one-sided in terms of a comprehensive strategy. The analysis
also examines whether the steps recorded in the DP models are sufficient to cover an
all-encompassing DAM. It shows that although steps of utilization are already
included, differentiation between objects and orientation along the supply chain are not
yet sufficiently addressed. This chapter presents the observations and concludes with a
proposition for a synthesized view of the global mosaic, incorporating an aggregated
DP/DAM model.
Keywords: Defense acquisition models, Defense acquisition process management, Defense procurement, International defense acquisition benchmark, Military.
