Just like innumerable other government agencies, the Air Force runs on paper-based forms that have to be filled out manually, and each one takes time. How much? That was a difficult question to answer until the Virginia Air National Guard’s 192nd Wing saw a chance to do things differently. ' Chief Master Sergeant Joe Young, who’s been leading the testing process, talks with Jared Serbu about the initiative, called HR Smart Weapon.

The internet is a forum for harassment that women in the military can't escape. They are being bombarded by toxic comments, vile memes and even stalking. Yet, the Pentagon has few answers for a problem that is hurting mental health and retention. In this extended special report, Federal News Network's Scott Maucione and Amelia Brust explore the problem in detail, and ask what the military services can and should be doing to address it.

Jason Weiss was appointed back in January 2021 as DoD’s first-ever Chief Software Officer. Weiss has decided he’s ready to move back to the private sector. In this episode, he tells Jared Serbu about his takeaways from his tour of duty, including some of the ways DoD’s started to experiment with new funding models for software, how software factories have started to permeate the department, and how he wishes he'd had more authority to direct change. Later in the episode, Department of the Navy CIO Aaron Weis and Jennifer Edgin, the Marine Corps’ Assistant Deputy Commandant for Information talk with Jared about IT modernization in the Navy and Marine Corps.

On this episode of On DoD, a bit of a logistics focus. First, we talk with Tim Walton, a fellow at the Hudson Institute, about DoD's somewhat surprising decision to close down its Red Hill fuel storage facility near Honolulu. We'll also talk with Al Thompson, the CEO of HomeSafe Alliance. That's the company U.S. Transportation Command finally selected to reform the military's household goods moving system. HomeSafe has a green light to get to work on the multibillion dollar contract, now that the Government Accountability Office has dismissed each of the bid protests that challenged it.

On this episode, an extended discussion with Danielle Metz, the deputy DoD chief information officer for information enterprise. Metz explains how Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle will actually compete for work under the up to $9 billion contract, in an approach that's novel for government procurement. Federal News Network reported on the key details of this interview in mid-December, when the coversation was first recorded. This episode of On DoD contains the full interview.

It’s fair to say there are a lot of institutions across government that are still figuring out what the future of work will look like. In this episode, we revisit one of the Army organizations that’s much further along than most when it comes to answering some of those questions. John Willison, the deputy to the commanding general at Army Combat Capabilities Development Command makes a second appearance on On DoD. Last April, he talked with us about what was then just a concept paper for the future of work at DEVCOM. This time, he joins us to talk about what the command has done to turn that paper into reality, including by giving supervisors “maximum flexibility” to decide when and where their employees work.

On this week's show, we talk to Al Thompson, the CEO of Homesafe Alliance, the joint venture U.S. Transportation Command just picked for a $6.2 billion contract to overhaul the military's household goods moving system. Later, Jared talks with Maj. Gen. Rob Collins, the Army's program executive officer for command, control and communications-tactical, Brig. Gen. Jeth Rey, the director of the Network Cross-Functional Team at Army Futures Command, amd Joe Welch, the director of the Army C5ISR center about the Army's new Unified Network Plan.

On this edition of On DoD: a deep dive on other transaction agreements.   According to the Federal Procurement Data System DoD’s use of OTAs has skyrocketed from 342 agreements worth $1.4 billion in 2016 to 3,200 agreements worth more than $16 billion in 2020. Despite that growth, the rules governing OTAs – what few rules there are – aren’t universally understood even inside the department’s own acquisition bureaucracy.   To help demystify OTAs, we’re joined by Hallie Balkin, one of DoD’s leading experts on OTAs. She is a government procurement attorney who currently works at Defense Acquisition University, where she’s the learning director for other transactions. Balkin is also involved in an effort with the Office of the Secretary of Defense to update and reissue DoD’s Other Transactions Guide.

On this edition of On DoD, Jared Serbu talks with two newly-sworn-in DoD technology leaders about their priorities: -- Heidi Shyu, the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering -- Jay Bonci, the Air Force Chief Technology Officer

The Defense acquisition workforce has faced challenges at other times in its history, but as of 2021, it’s living in interesting times. Contracting officers, program managers and other acquisition professionals are navigating their way through some big changes. Just to name a few: a major recent rewrite of the DoD 5000.02 series of policy instructions, a massive rise in interest in other transaction agreements and other nontraditional procurement vehicles, a new “pathway” designed for software acquisition, and new ways to budget for those software procurements. On this special edition of On DoD, we’re joined by three of the key leaders who are helping to prepare the workforce for these new challenges, and who are also finding new instructional and collaboration mechanisms to provide acquisition professionals with the tools they need to meet their missions. Our guests are James Woolsey, the president of Defense Acquisition University, Frank Kelley, DAU’s vice president, and Michelle Currier, professor of contract management at DAU.