Frank Kendall III

Frank Kendall III (born January 26, 1949) is an American engineer, lawyer, and executive who has served in senior positions in the US Department of Defense.  He is a West Point graduate[1] and retired as a LTC from the US Army Reserves. From 2012 to 2017 he served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics in the Obama administration.[2][3][4][5]

Frank Kendall
Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics
In office October 6, 2011 – January 20, 2017
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Ash Carter
Succeeded by	Jimmy MacStravic (Acting)
Personal details
Born	(1949-01-26) January 26, 1949 Pittsfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Education	United States Military Academy (BS) California Institute of Technology (MS) Long Island University (MBA) Georgetown University (JD)

Kendall began his career as a US Army officer. After several assignments including postings to Germany and teaching engineering at West Point, he joined the civil service working as a systems engineer in missile defense.  In 1986, he became the Assistant Deputy Under Secretary for Strategic Defense Systems as a member of the Senior Executive Service. From 1989 to 1994, he served as first “acting" and then permanent Deputy Director of Defense Research and Engineering with responsibility for all US conventional weapon systems research and development programs. After leaving government service in 1994, Kendall served as Corporate Vice President of Engineering at Raytheon and later as a consultant.  During this period Kendall acquired a J.D. degree from Georgetown University Law Center and worked on a pro bono basis as a human rights attorney.[6]  In 2010 Kendall returned to government, first as Principal Under Secretary and then Under Secretary for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics.[7]

During his tenure as Under Secretary, Kendall implemented policies that led to substantial improvements in the cost and schedule performance of the Defense Department’s weapons acquisition programs.[8]  In 2016 he was recognized as Person of the Year by Aviation Week and Space Technology for his cost control efforts.[9] In addition to the policy changes he initiated and executed under the “Better Buying Power” initiatives he directly oversaw over 50 of the largest defense weapons programs.  Examples include the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program where he froze production for two years to incentivize efforts to stabilize the design,[10] the GPS 3 ground system, OCX, where he led the effort to restructure and complete this troubled program.[11]  He oversaw the initiation of the  development of the B-21 Long Range Strike Bomber which is currently executing to plan.[12] He formulated and led the effort to acquire the Military Health System GENESIS (MHS GENESIS) program, modern healthcare management system that has been adopted by the Department of Veterans Affairs as well as the Defense Department.[13][14]  Kendall led the effort to support operations in Iraq and Afghanistan[15][16][17] with rapid acquisition programs and he led the effort to remove Syrian chemical weapons from that country and destroy them at sea.[18]  Kendall was a major sponsor for innovation,[19] launching the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency led Aerospace Innovation Initiative.[20]  Kendall was one of the first to raise alarms about Chinese military modernization and the threat it posed to US conventional military superiority.[21]  While in office he authored the articles on defense acquisition that he compiled in his book “Getting Defense Acquisition Right".[22]