Defense acquisition projects cost billions of taxpayer dollars each year. These huge investments, coupled with seemingly perennial criticisms of waste and mismanagement, point out the need for a clearly written guide to the myriad functions and issues involved in defense acquisition management. This book, written for both students and practitioners, enables the reader to understand the broad range of disciplines and activities that must be integrated in order to achieve successful acquisition outcomes.Written by academics and practitioners from the Naval Postgraduate School, the book provides a basic overview of each functional area that supports defense acquisition projects as well as its application to those projects. These functional areas include systems engineering, financial management, contract management, test and evaluation, production management, and logistics and sustainment. The book also highlights significant issues such as organizational considerations, the defense industrial base, and acquisition workforce issues. Learning objectives are stated at the beginning of each chapter and study questions are provided at the end of each chapter.It is written in a manner that will withstand the many DOD policy changes that are often associated with defense acquisition programs, giving the book a long and enduring shelf life.