Defense Acquisition Quotes

While the Pentagon ultimately awards military contracts, there is a reason for the review process. The Senate's subcommittee on Military Construction's approval carries weight.

The defense industry understands that the military budgets will continue to be cut until a new threat comes along.

The Pentagon cannot acquire any equipment or technology without adequate funding. And the current budget process does not allow for the development and deployment of solutions to urgent problems on the battlefield.

President Trump has made rebuilding our military strength one of his top priorities. More money is certainly required, but so is reform of the Pentagon and how it does business.

[Discussing specific weapons systems:] I voted for them when I was in Congress. Now that I'm secretary [of defense] I have to figure out a way to pay for them.

The Pentagon doesn’t need more money. What it needs desperately is a functional procurement system …. The result [of not having one] is not just ordinary waste, fraud and abuse … but also deep and lasting damage to the country’s ability to project power and wage war.

I am confident that President Trump's administration is capable of making the Pentagon run at maximum efficiency and enacting procurement reforms that will get weapons and assets to our warfighters more quickly and efficiently.

We need to just study what other countries have done. There are examples of a strong partnership between the defence establishment and the private industry.

The armored vehicle manufacturing base is not a light switch that can be turned on and off at will. If we mothball production of systems like the Abrams tank, it will take time and money to get this capability back.

When you cut a half-a-trillion dollars from the defense budget, it affects almost every area in the defense budget.

I ask the American people to consider the legacy this administration has handed us in the defense budget as we spend billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars without the tools and ability to track these dollars.

And to do that not only for the war fighter, but also to help prepare the people in the acquisition, personnel and policy worlds who need to make adjustments in the department's business, which itself may take 10 or 15 years to accomplish.

The bottom line, addressing defense spending cuts with a meat ax like sequestration will damage defense readiness for decades to come.

I have long believed there is a lot of waste in the defense budget.

I never intended to be a defense contractor in the first place.

There is something different between defence deal and deal in defence.

While our superpower military is stunningly effective, it is also stunningly expensive.

In Afghanistan and Iraq [the wars], the Pentagon saw little value in making acquisitions that would be irrelevant by the time they were ready.