WEBVTT

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>> My name is Mercedes Fitchett,

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and I'm in Acquisition Program Management,
U.S. Air Force, at The Pentagon.

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Acquisition Program Management
basically involves the development

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of the weapons systems that the Department uses.

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So it includes career fields such as
contracting, systems engineering, testing,

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business, and finance information
assurance and program management.

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And program management is the career
field within acquisition in which I'm in.

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A busy day has lots of meetings
with other parts of The Pentagon,

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mostly including our finance
and comptroller offices.

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We also do a lot of management with our
acquisition centers out in the field,

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and we also conduct a lot of financial analysis,

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so that we're effectively using U.S. Air
Force dollars across all the weapons systems.

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We do have over $100 billion in research
and development and procurement funds.

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As you can imagine, in this time of
sequester, it's really important to make sure

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that the money is where it's most needed.

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So acquisition is very much
like product development.

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You first have an idea.

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You see that there is a capability gap.

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So in defense, for example, it may be a
new-generation long-range bomber that's going

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to fly a longer distance.

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So you have this capability gap, and
then you actually develop different types

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of prototypes that may get you there.

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So you will contract out to different
defense groups such as Boeing or Raytheon,

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or Northrop Grumman, and they will have
contracts to develop these prototypes,

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and then you will compete these
prototypes against one another,

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and you'll do a down select, and then
you'll engage in initial production,

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and if testing/user acceptance goes well,
you'll actually go into full-rate production

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and then deployment to the
field for the war fighter.