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2011-02-11 Home Front: Culture Wars

General gives stinging rebuke to contractors

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Posted by DarthVader 2011-02-11 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11124 views ] Top

#1 I have another one (maybe this rub some people the wrong way). How about doing away with paying retired Generals a couple hundred K a yr for becoming "mentors" - whatever the f*ck that means. From what I've seen they go around and tell war stories and sit in on planning conferences. Hey, if the active duty General needs a retired "mentor" to help him w/the JOPP I think we're sorta screwed.

Posted by Broadhead6 2011-02-11 00:51|| 2011-02-11 00:51|| Front Page Top

#2 Methinks the lady doth protest too much. So the question becomes why and for who is the good General putting on this little bit of theater?

Posted by SteveS 2011-02-11 01:07|| 2011-02-11 01:07|| Front Page Top

#3 For Congress. These generals are bureaucrats in uniform, not warriors. The contractors are their co-conspirators. Even Ike could see that 50 years ago. They can sense that the party is just about over and the tune is changing. They are trying to get ahead of the curve and appear to have been tea partiers for ever. They're a target rich environment.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2011-02-11 07:14|| 2011-02-11 07:14|| Front Page Top

#4 build the new shit with off the shelf systems

Which will be unlikely as long as Congresscritters keep inserting special interest group set asides and racial preference requirements and reporting, for example, upon pure business transactions.

Congresscritters protect their own as the next generation air refuel tanker contract demonstrates. Don't win, whine and complain to force the military to adopt two systems [and double the maintenance and spare parts sustainment].

Posted by Procopius2k 2011-02-11 08:40|| 2011-02-11 08:40|| Front Page Top

#5 However, the politicians and the military are just as much to blame

Wrong! They are much more to blame. I've worked as a contractor in a couple of very different industries. The IT stint included some military work. Everything said here about fiefdoms and scope creep (more like gallop) are more than true. I've never seen a contractor yet (or any other kind of purveyor) that wasn't under the control of the customer. The contractors can't start the process, they can just milk it.

Posted by Alan Cramer 2011-02-11 08:46|| 2011-02-11 08:46|| Front Page Top

#6 True Alan, but I have seen contractors milk it very deliberately.

The thing that fries me every time is when I, the engineer, want to make a change it has to go through literally 20 layers of company, government and civilian investigation before the damn thing is even considered to be approved to go forward. One small tweak, like using a newer version of software or changing the the layout a little takes me two weeks of FULL TIME running around just doing all the bullshit bureaucracy. The company charges the government $100/h for my work (believe me, I don't see nearly that much) and two weeks of going through meetings, change requests, meeting majors, civilian overseers, middle managers, etc. costs the government $8,000 just to start thinking about the approval of a simple, $180 fix.

Posted by DarthVader 2011-02-11 08:56|| 2011-02-11 08:56|| Front Page Top

#7 "Cost-control will be an issue in everything we do, from weapon programs to healthcare, the air chief said."

Obama to DoD. No more money for Defense.

Posted by Chater Borgia4688 2011-02-11 09:45|| 2011-02-11 09:45|| Front Page Top

#8 Milk it deliberately, Darth? Not only deliberately but with malice aforethought. That's why they make sure that the hose for all that milk has a couple of "leaks" to keep the pols and brass well sated.

The contractors no more want the inter-agency squabbling and fiefdoms to be stopped than the people in control of the fiefs. That's why Ike labeled it a "complex".

Unfortunately rather than figuring out how to stop it, we've created more and more with every expansion of the Gov't. Areas such as Agriculture, environment and welfare, to name a few, suffer all the same.

Posted by Alan Cramer 2011-02-11 09:46|| 2011-02-11 09:46|| Front Page Top

#9 Alan Cramer,
The milking comes after several tries at doing the job more efficiently and cheaply; and getting threatened with fines/jail for doing so.

"You want me to waste your money? Here ya go!"

When I was working on the Apache helicopter, we had to generate a DD220 report for each helicopter (but there was no guidence on what the report should look like). We contacted DOD to ask what they used it for. They said they never looked at it - just checked to see if it was there. Then they filed it away and sent it to Iron Mountain. Failure to deliver was punishably by large fines. So we gave them an unreadable report and said to hell with them.

Posted by Frozen Al 2011-02-11 13:24|| 2011-02-11 13:24|| Front Page Top

#10 Want a program to cancel? Try the 2.75in air to ground rocket. It is obsolete, and we have a 30 year supply at current usage rates. The military has been trying to end production for decades. However, the manufacturer is a major contributor to Sen. Leahy (D-VT). Every year DOD removes funding for new production of this weapon and every year (the very liberal) Sen. Leahy puts it back.

The Dems view the DOD budget as pure pork. They don't care whether the system works or not.

Al

Posted by Frozen Al 2011-02-11 13:26|| 2011-02-11 13:26|| Front Page Top

#11 Adapted COTS is the way to go for initial fielding in a hurry.

Posted by OldSpook 2011-02-11 23:45|| 2011-02-11 23:45|| Front Page Top

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