Too Big To Fail
If you saw the Sixty Minutes piece on the JSF last night, you probably not a happy camper. The opening salvo was pretty staggering: The program is costing $400B for 2400 airplanes, or about twice as much as the US spent to put men on the moon! So how did we get here? When I was a squadron Commanding Officer in the 1991 timeframe I witnessed a rare occurrence at the Pentagon, The cancellation of the A-12 Avenger program by then Secretary of Defense Cheney. The A-12,intended to be the next generation aircraft for the US military, was scheduled for a buy of about 850 jets. But it was 18...
Read MoreQ•D•arrrrgh!
I saw a nice article in Politico’s Morning Defense this morning about the upcoming DoD Quadrennial Defense Review, commonly referred to as the QDR. I fondly remember my days in the Pentagon wrestling with the QDR gurus, the best and brightest thinkers of all the Services, getting together to figure out how their Service was going to get more money. The knives were out as the behind-the-scenes point papers on the vulnerability of aircraft carriers, the shear madness of fleets of supersonic, stealth airplanes, and the end of the need for “Boots on the Ground” proliferated...
Read MoreMini Cooper or a Lamborghini
I feel compelled to react to acting Deputy Secretary of Defense Christine Fox’s remarks yesterday regarding the questionable combat capability of the Navy’s controversial Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). Her views are that the threats to surface ships are so great that we ought not invest in them, especially the less capable LCS. Instead we should put our bucks in submarines (to the tune of about $2 Billion apiece) and other “enablers” like Electronic Warfare capabilities. She’s obviously been bitten by the Sub Bug! The facts are that we simply can’t afford the...
Read MoreStanding in Line at the Grocery Store
There was an article in the news this morning that reminded of the days when I would go to the grocery store with the kids ( and now grandkids). It was a Defense News article on the White house pushing for higher DoD budget numbers- about $36 Billion higher than the sequester cap and just about in line with the Murray-Ryan budget deal. But they are also crafting at least $26 Billion in the “unfunded” wish list (See my previous comments about wish lists). It’s like getting to the checkout aisle at the grocery store with your kids in tow and they start picking up all the...
Read MoreAuditors in the Hall of Heroes?
“It’s like pushing a heavy block across sandpaper.” That’s what DoD Comptroller Bob Hale said yesterday in the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes at a ceremony celebrating a significant milestone- the USMC’s clean audit opinion on the current year Statement of Budgetary Resources. For those in the federal financial world, that is BIG news! In typical USMC “Out in Front” style, the Corps took on the task of being the first Service to declare audit readiness and complete the process to prove they are ready. It was an effort like no other seen in DoD...
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