The Department of Defense's acquisitions process does not work for technology. It is too costly and time-consuming to provide the DOD with the weapons systems it needs when it needs them. A key example is the Warfighter Information Network - Tactical (WIN-T). WIN-T began in the late 1990s as an effort to provide tactical communications to the battalion level and below, using a combination of commercial and military technology. The inefficiency of the acquisitions process program caused the program to languish for nearly a decade. The DOD developed the Joint Network Node (JNN) for Iraq from an urgent need through an accelerated process, then incorporated it into WIN-T in 2007. After WIN-T incorporated JNN, subsequent increments struggled with issues of cost, schedule, and reliability through the usual acquisitions process before its cancellation in 2017. Without a significant acquisitions overhaul, future attempts to develop and maintain technological superiority will likely face the same challenges.

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