Flexee Defense Acquisitions Specialist — Acquisition in Action
Defense acquisition programs succeed or fail in the space between functional areas — where a contracting decision ripples into cost reporting, where an engineering shortcut surfaces months later as a test failure, where a program manager's schedule optimism eventually forces a logistics team to plan around a system that isn't ready. Flexee Defense Acquisitions Specialist puts participants inside that space.
Meridian Ground Vehicle Program — ACAT I Army system in EMD.Built around the Meridian Ground Vehicle Program — a fictional ACAT I Army system in Engineering and Manufacturing Development — the simulation runs participants through the full EMD lifecycle, from program baseline to the Milestone C production decision.
Teams make decisions as Program Managers, Contracting Officers, Financial Managers, Systems Engineers, T&E Managers, and Logistics specialists. Every decision has consequences. Most of those consequences land on someone else's scorecard.
Participants leave with more than functional knowledge. They leave having watched a program they managed either succeed or fail — and having a clear record of exactly which decisions, in which periods, made the difference.
Each level builds on the last. Run them sequentially or independently.
Participants master their own functional area's decision logic, vocabulary, and accountability in isolation. One FA at a time. Build fluency before integration.
The CO's contract type choices start moving the FM's EAC. The FM's management reserve draws start reducing the PM's risk buffer. T&E test failures start generating engineering rework. The consequences begin to cross lanes.
All six functional areas simultaneously. A software integration crisis at Period 8 whose severity depends on how well teams controlled configuration in prior periods. A Nunn-McCurdy breach trigger at Period 12. An 8-criterion production readiness assessment at Milestone C.
Six DAU functional areas, each with its own decision logic, vocabulary, and accountability. Participants operate inside their role — and watch the consequences of their choices land on someone else's scorecard.
Schedule approach, requirements control, risk response, stakeholder engagement, technical baseline, contractor oversight. Milestone gates at DRR, CDR, PDR-2. User satisfaction and HCA confidence track every call.
Risk & baseline managementContract type selection — FFP, CPIF, CPAF, CPFF, T&M. UCA definitization under FAR 16.603. Competition strategy. Award fee calibration. CPARS ratings. REAs and subcontract oversight.
FAR-compliant contractingEVM reporting and corrective action. EAC methodology — CPI-based, bottom-up, optimistic. Obligation management. Management reserve control. Affordability analysis. Nunn-McCurdy watch and response.
EVM & Nunn-McCurdyRequirements management, configuration control, TRL advancement, interface control, technical risk, engineering oversight, TDP development. The decisions that determine whether the system is ready for test.
Technical baseline integrityTest planning, DT&E strategy, test resource allocation, failure resolution, independent assessment, OT&E preparation. MTBF, test success rate, schedule reserve, OT&E readiness — all track back to here.
DT&E / OT&E readinessILS strategy, PBL development, supply chain management, tech data rights negotiation, maintenance concept, sustainment cost analysis, CDR readiness, reliability targets. The sustainment tail that starts long before fielding.
ILS & sustainmentSix mechanics that separate Flexee Defense Acquisitions Specialist from FA-specific tabletop exercises and generic program management simulations — because none of them model the space between the functional areas.
DAU training typically covers one functional area at a time. Flexee Defense Acquisitions Specialist is the only simulation where PM, CO, FM, SE, T&E, and LOG participants run the same program at the same time — with decisions in each role driving outcomes in the others.
The CO's contract type choice flows 1:1 into the FM's EAC. MR draws below threshold remove PM risk buffer. Schedule slip compresses T&E schedule. Test failures generate engineering rework. Poor ILS planning flows to PM schedule risk. The model is the message.
From program baseline through DRR, CDR, PDR-2, and on to Milestone C. Participants see how decisions in Period 1 echo through to the production decision — not just the next period's scorecard.
At Period 8 an ATLAS ERP integration crisis fires — and its severity depends on how well teams controlled configuration in earlier periods. At Period 12 the Nunn-McCurdy breach check runs. At Milestone C, eight criteria decide whether the program goes to production.
Teams whose FAs make aligned decisions earn a composite-score bonus. Teams with siloed thinking — where engineering pushes TRL while T&E defers testing and logistics defers ILS — lose it. The simulation rewards program-level coherence, not FA-level optimization.
Level 1 builds functional fluency. Level 2 introduces the cross-functional mechanics. Level 3 runs the full six-FA program. Instructors can deploy a single level as a standalone course or sequence all three across a semester.
Built for DAU coursework, program office training, and defense acquisition programs in graduate schools. Configurable by level — run a single FA in a two-day workshop, or the full six-FA program across a semester.
Participants take a functional role — or team up across roles depending on level. Four competing teams run the same program in parallel.
Each period, each role enters their FA-specific decisions. Validation rules enforce FAR compliance, schedule reality, and technical gate readiness.
Engine runs. Cross-functional effects propagate across scorecards. The CO's choices hit the FM's EAC. The FM's MR moves the PM's buffer.
Milestone reviews reveal program health. CDR, PDR-2, Nunn-McCurdy at P12, Milestone C at P20. The program either goes to production or it doesn't.
The core thesis
"Defense acquisition programs succeed or fail in the space between functional areas — where a contracting decision ripples into cost reporting, where an engineering shortcut surfaces months later as a test failure, where a program manager's schedule optimism eventually forces a logistics team to plan around a system that isn't ready. Flexee Defense Acquisitions Specialist puts participants inside that space."
From the Flexee Defense Acquisitions Specialist program overview
Your implementation guide
Sales, implementation, and training for Flexee Defense Acquisitions Specialist. He'll help you map the simulation to your program — whether that's a single-FA workshop, a cross-functional module, or a full 20-period semester deployment with all six functional areas in play.
CPIM · CSCP · CLTD · CTSC
Book a thirty-minute walkthrough. We'll show you a period of the Meridian Ground Vehicle Program, walk through the cross-functional ripple mechanics, and help you think through where Flexee Defense Acquisitions Specialist fits your curriculum.