Last week, Highlights reported that the House Armed Services Committee’s (HASC) Defense Reform Panel had released an interim report recommending wide-scale defense acquisition reform.  This week the Panel released its final report, making few changes to the interim text.  According to a press release issued after the final vote on the report, the Panel conducted 14 hearings and held two briefings.   The final report concluded that DoD’s acquisition systems have not kept pace with the dramatic changes that have occurred in the nature of defense acquisition.  Its recommendations range from the need to continually assess acquisition systems’ performance, to developing a more flexible and efficient, rightly-sized workforce, improving the accuracy and timing of DoD’s financial systems, and better managing the industrial base.  The Panel estimates that its recommendations will save DoD $135 billion over the next five years.