Inside Defense SITREP Quotes Angela Styles on DOD’s Balance Between Supply-Chain Security and Commercial Innovation

Akin Gump government contracts partner Angela Styles has been quoted by Inside Defense SITREP in the article “Pentagon struggles to balance supply-chain security concerns with commercial innovation push.” The article reports that, while the Department of Defense (DOD) has tried to implement better security protocols of key technologies from potential adversaries like China, those efforts have come into conflict with the department’s own attempts to work with commercial businesses.

One example of how this has played out, according to the article, has been with China’s Huawei and its relationship with the Chinese Communist Party. U.S. officials, the article notes, have been trying to convince countries around the world that Huawei poses too great a risk to allow it to build the next-generation “5G” wireless network.

The push to implement better supply-chain security measures, however, is often at odds with parallel attempts to deregulate acquisition for the sake of commercial innovation, according to Styles. For example, she said, since other transaction agreements are not subject to the Federal Acquisition Regulation, they are not required to contain numerous regulations, like cost accounting standards, that might otherwise deter small businesses and technology start-ups from working with DOD.

It also means that Other Transaction Authorities do not include DOD’s standard cybersecurity requirements, Styles pointed out. “I just see the train wreck coming,” she said. “I worry that in the interest of getting the technology we need, that we’re not putting the protections in place.”