Ellen Lord, the Undersecretary for Acquisition and Sustainment at the Department of Defense (DoD) has stated that she expects to see contract delays of up to three months across Major Defense Acquisition Programs, as contractors deal with challenges in the supply chain due to the coronavirus pandemic, as reported in the Washington Business Journal on Monday.

Ellen Lord

According to the article, she indicated that, currently, there isn’t any specific COVID-19 penalty that the organization sees for a specific program. However, the anticipation is that a three-month slowdown at slower rates in terms of execution than previously experienced is expcted. Key milestones that might be impacted are now being examined.

She added that small space launch, shipbuilding and aviation are three areas of concern and cited DoD’s efforts in response to COVID-19, which looks at the defense industrial base where infections are located and attempt to anticipate problems and then work with the companies in those locates to keep the process moving forward to the greatest degree that is possible.