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| House OK's 'critical' multiyear DoD buys |
| 2007-05-21 |
| The House of Representatives wants to mobilize the economy to address chronic equipment shortfalls across the U.S. Army, National Guard and Marine Corps. It also wants to give the Pentagon much broader latitude to establish multiyear contracts with suppliers, locking the Defense Department into long-term contracts with the hoped-for benefit of a swift resolution of critical shortfalls. The Defense Readiness Production Board is the brainchild of House Democrats, including Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo. The Pentagon board, which would report directly to the defense secretary, would receive readiness reports directly from the services and would advise "how the country's total industrial base, both defense and non-defense, could be mobilized to address critical readiness requirements as rapidly as possible," states the 2008 defense authorization bill and report passed last week by the House. The House reasons that because the military services are constrained by budgets they don't ask for, and cannot afford, everything they require within the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Thus, critical equipment shortfalls can develop unnoticed by civilian leadership until they pose real difficulties. The board would be comprised of civilian officials at the Pentagon, uniformed members of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and the military services, and officials responsible for equipment maintenance depots. It would report directly to the defense secretary if there are critical readiness shortfalls. The bill would also create a 12-member Defense Production Industrial Advisory Board, appointed by the defense secretary and the congressional defense committees, of industrial base leaders from both the defense sector and civilian sectors to advise the Pentagon on industrial base issues. It would allow the Pentagon to enter multiyear contracts to address critical shortfalls for up to $500 million. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #2 Oh, and don't forget that little thing called the Constitution which expressly prohibits funding the Army for more than 2 years at a time, "To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years". Have to run the programs through DoD to get around that little un-amended quirk. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2007-05-21 22:03 |
| #1 How about a decent PDW to replace the M-4 and upgrading the M-4/M-16 system to 6.5 grendel or 6.8 SPC? |
| Posted by: Jonathan 2007-05-21 20:14 |