Since the beginning of the Civil War, the Union army faced with the task of supplying a growing number of recruits alliance with shoulder weapon. Existing stocks of the government were insufficient, and the head of ammunition had to consider the alternatives: public stocks of obsolete muskets, private producers, and European arms manufacturers. Further confusing matters was the fact that, given the recent advances in the development of rifles, new weapons promise higher rates of fire and ease of handling, but the quality of innovation in the design of the rifle were scattered on many of them inappropriate. Part provides an overview of the complexity of environmental ammunition to the outbreak of war and puts tension between improvement and maintenance of the Army rifle smoothly functioning supply system. Part B chronicles the efforts of Christopher Spencer, inventor of innovative rifle, for contracts with ammunition army in the face of resistance. Case is designed to illustrate the problems in procurement and supply management in critical circumstances and place of innovation in this process as a reasonable technological conservatism in crisis? It also raises questions of interaction between existing strategic doctrine and technology. Finally, it illustrates some of the sources of innovation in weaponry and the ways in which such innovations can be adopted. HKS Case Number 772.0 "Hide
by Michael O'Hara, Melissa Williams Source: Harvard Kennedy School 5 pages. Publication Date: January 1, 1987. Prod. #: HKS019-PDF-ENG
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