Seen on the street in Kyiv.

Words of Advice:

"If Something Seems To Be Too Good To Be True, It's Best To Shoot It, Just In Case." -- Fiona Glenanne

“The Mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” -- The TOFF *

"Foreign Relations Boil Down to Two Things: Talking With People or Killing Them." -- Unknown

“Speed is a poor substitute for accuracy.” -- Real, no-shit, fortune from a fortune cookie

"If you believe that you are talking to G-d, you can justify anything.” — my Dad

"Colt .45s; putting bad guys in the ground since 1873." -- Unknown

"Stay Strapped or Get Clapped." -- probably not Mr. Rogers

"The Dildo of Karma rarely comes lubed." -- Unknown

"Eck!" -- George the Cat

* "TOFF" = Treasonous Orange Fat Fuck, A/K/A Dolt-45,
A/K/A Commandante (or Cadet) Bone Spurs,
A/K/A El Caudillo de Mar-a-Lago, A/K/A the Asset., A/K/A P01135809

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Putting a Spike in the Revolving Door at Ft. Fumble

The radar-carrying blimp program may finally be dead.
Two U.S. senators with sway over all federal spending have dealt a crippling bipartisan blow to the Pentagon’s troubled $2.7-billion program to use radar-carrying blimps to search for enemy missiles.

Sens. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), who holds the Democrats’ No. 2 leadership position in the Senate, have refused a request by the Obama administration to shift $27.2 million to the program to keep it alive.
...
A report released this year by the Pentagon’s independent testing office made clear that JLENS still could not be relied on to perform its expected mission.
The only reason it survived an attempt to kill it in 2011 was because a top-ranking officer saved it. You probably won't be shocked to learn that said officer then retired and got a lucrative job with the prime contractor.

Meanwhile, the Army's boss is asking why it's so goddamn hard to buy a new pistol.
The U.S. Army's chief of staff said Thursday that if he had his way, he'd abandon the bureaucratic Modular Handgun System effort and personally select the service's next pistol.

Speaking at the Future of War Conference 2016, Gen. Mark Milley said he has asked Congress to grant service chiefs the authority to bypass the Pentagon's multi-layered and complex acquisition process on programs that do not require research and development.

"We are not exactly redesigning how to go to the moon, right?" Milley said. "This is a pistol. ... And arguably, it is the least lethal and important weapon system in the Department of Defense inventory."
He's somewhat pissed that the Army is going to spend $17 million to test the guns, which were submitted in response to a 357-page RFP.

I can see why the Army would like to buy only one pistol. But it's a very stupid idea, of the same thinking that has led to the F-35 Flying Clusterfuck.

4 comments:

Keaaukane said...

The General could at least say which one he'd pick.
he could really amp up the fanboys.

CenterPuke88 said...

Why not just ask each manufacturer to suggest one of their production pistols to fill the job, then go out and buy a couple of dozen of each, off the street. Then put them through their paces, and pick the most suitable. If the winner is a small manufacturer, license the design and have it produced, a big boy, just buy'em. Any reason it wouldn't work?

Borepatch said...

The point is to staff the DoD with headcount. Can't go up the promotion ladder without enough minions under you.

And so, minions. After all, those 357 page RFPs won't write themselves ...

Comrade Misfit said...

I'd bet that said 357-pg RFP was written by another contractor.