Time is one of the hardest procurement constraints. Britain's repeated entry into and withdrawal from the Boxer program illustrates how policy churn can disrupt a long-running project. Ministers and senior officers are tempted to place their own stamp on a program, claim its success, or distinguish themselves from a predecessor. That behavior was less damaging when a ship might move from design through commissioning within roughly three years and a minister remained in post for a similar period. Modern development can last twenty or thirty years while a minister may serve only eighteen months, making repeated redirection structurally destructive. Buying off the shelf does not remove the long cycle because another institution must still fund and perform the research that creates the equipment available to buy.
Notable Point · 59:54-1:02:41
When leadership tenure is shorter than procurement
Boxer and the contrast between eighteen-month ministerial tenures and twenty- or thirty-year development cycles show why constant personal interventions destabilize procurement.