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.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.
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.
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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.
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.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.
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."
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.
The General could at least say which one he'd pick.
ReplyDeletehe could really amp up the fanboys.
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?
ReplyDeleteThe point is to staff the DoD with headcount. Can't go up the promotion ladder without enough minions under you.
ReplyDeleteAnd so, minions. After all, those 357 page RFPs won't write themselves ...
I'd bet that said 357-pg RFP was written by another contractor.
ReplyDelete