On June 29, 1994, Secretary of Defense William Perry signed a memo titled “Specifications and Standards — A New Way of Doing Business.” It made performance specifications and commercial products the default. A performance specification says what an item must do, not how to make it. Detailed military specifications were allowed only “as a last resort, with an appropriate waiver.”
A 1997 Air War College paper gave examples of what the old system cost. The military had used its own specifications to buy “dog combs, tacos, fruitcakes.” A specification for white gloves “caused one manufacturer to set up a different assembly line.” The gloves cost $32 a pair. The same manufacturer sold “nearly identical gloves commercially for $20.”