Put on Your Tin Foil Hats. ..
Rainer Hachfeld, Neues DeutschlandMr. President, are you aware unless you're rich,
you have poor health care?
It makes you scream and want to pull out your hair
Discharged from the hospital soon as you get there
--Mr. President, LL Kool J,
What we got here is...
failure to communicate
--Cool Hand Luke (1967)
____________
$12 Billion for radios. Put that price next to almost anything else you can imagine this country needs. Approximately $50 Billion for a universal health program which will never be funded for starters, and go from there.
What's The Frequency?
Check out this summary of a new GAO report about the Pentagon's purchase of a new generation of radios."The Department of Defense (DOD) has spent an estimated $12 billion on the development and production of tactical radios over the last 5 years--about as much as was spent producing Virginia Class submarines ($10.8 billion) in the same period."
The original estimated cost was supposed to be close to $3 billion.
Why, why, why, you ask. Government Inc. wonders too. The report suggests that the Pentagon rushed the development of the radios, then got caught up in costly delays, and then watched as costs soared.
Of course, it was working, as it should, in the interests of the warfighters, whose lives often depend on instant, excellent communication. But it appears we may have a breakdown in communication on how to design and buy the equipment.
Is anybody ever held accountable for this kind of thing?
Labels: $12 billion tactical radios, pentagon bunkruptcy, phony war on terror, PWOT
posted by Lisa at 12:40 PM
5 Comments:
It makes the blood boil!
One of the things I remember when I was working for a defense company was the issue of the $400.00 hammer...and something about a $300.00 toilet seat.
Now, having worked with MilSpec, I can say that the requirements are baffling, and worse, strigent.
Which of course leads to all those cost overruns.
Then you get into customers wants desires, and "oooh, can we get that put in, too?"
Which is the stuff that sends engineers to the bar, muttering derogatory comments about the ancestory of the gov people, and knowing what they want before commiting it to a contract.
However, I digress.
The issue is not so much the charges for the product, hey, they wanted it, the supplier supplied it.
No, what should get your undies in a bunch is why did the gov pay that price in the first place?
It seems to me capitalism weeds out the most expensive companies in our economy, but defense contractors get a pass on that darwinian process.
I wouldn't get pissed at the supplier, I'd get pissed at the gov guy who authorized the payment.
sheerahkhan,
I can live with the observation.
Nah, nobody is ever held accountable for millions wasted, but heaven help the SP4 who can't account for a pistol belt. He's gonna pay.
rick98c,
Not just millions, Billions, and you're right about the lowly SP4.
If an officer loses a rifle in his command, he'll be relived. Petraues lost 100,000's of rifles, yet he was promoted from LT. GEN. to GEN.
Soldiers who have been wounded have had to pay for equipment lost when they were medevaced. I wouldn't doubt they tried to get a reimbursement from Pat Tillman's acct. for his personal equipment which was burned.
Just speculation, or course.
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