Not enough armor in Iraq? Fix the military'S failed acquisition system

opinionjournal.com ^ | Friday, December 10, 2004 | opinionjournal

[crushelits]

Congress's Paperwork Humvees
First, fix the military's failed acquisition system.

When an Army reservist in Kuwait gave Donald Rumsfeld an earful Wednesday about inadequate armor for Iraq-bound Humvees, the Defense Secretary responded by paying the soldier the compliment of candor. "You go to war with the army you have. They're not the army you might want or wish to have," he said.

That's at least an honest answer, and the Secretary's forthrightness seems to have been appreciated by the troops at the town hall meeting, who gave him a standing ovation. But back in Washington, candor has gotten more than one official in trouble. Faster than you could say "Abu Ghraib," a new issue was born for critics of the Bush Administration's Iraq policy.

Figuring it was politically safe to slipstream behind a soldier's question, Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd called Mr. Rumsfeld's comments "cavalier." House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called for Mr. Rumsfeld to be fired--for only the 10th or 15th time. California Representative Ellen Tauscher vows to press for hearings on supply needs.

[isthisnickcool]

I met some fellow that are Cobra Helicopter pilots. They told me that some part of the Cobra is built in every state in the country. So that each state gets a piece of the money.

Does that make sense?

[RetiredArmy]

The down sizing of the military throughout the Klinton years of the 90's is coming home to roost. You can cut quickly, but you cannot redo, reorder, refit, make up what is lost over a series of years in just two to four years under Bush and since 9-1-1 when our military started going to battle frequently. It has taken time to get the right stuff back into the field. The system is still behind the demand.

[blanknoone]

You should have seen the map the Crusader program had...it mapped out the country according to each of 435 congressional districts and showed what was made where. Not every single one had something...but much much better than half did. I would estimate that less than 15% of districts did not have their finger in the pie somehow. And this was considered a selling point to advertise the program. And I'm not singling out Crusader...it is what the military and contractors do to try to get Congressional support.

If they are looking for how $100 toilet seats happen...that is how.

[TomasUSMC]

Armor is not the answer. Rummy was right. Tanks are being stopped. You can put enough steel on a Hummvee to make it sink in the sand but the terrs will just add another 155 shell.

You put 4 155 shells under a road or suicide ram it into anything and thats all she wrote. The fact is we are losing one third of our casualties to mines suicide attacks on our convoys. Our tactics need to change.

Military access only to convoy vital routes. Let the cars find another way to get to where they are going.

Less convoys. Consolidate our positions and pay the Kurds to take up the more dispersed positions.

More electronic countermeasures to jam or predetonate remote mines.

AND

WE NEED TO THREATEN IRAN or they will continue to motivate terrorist. (Actually we will have to take out Iran internally or overtly.)

Kill first ask question later.

[cynicom]

" The system is still behind the demand."...The system is always behind, built in paper shufflers by the thousands.

[LikeLight]

Excellent post.

[Lil'freeper]

ping

[UseYourHead]

If they are looking for how $100 toilet seats happen...that is how.

Actaully, the MILSPEC program is what makes everything expensive. Each item that MUST meet a Military Specification is manuafactured and tested to that SPEC. Drives costs WAY WAY UP. COTS is supposed to help but COTS doesn't have everything and not everything is designed to be beat to death by military personnel.

[blanknoone]

MILSPEC is a fair point, but that it is congress that is crazy with enforcement and doesn't allow exemptions. I'm sure the manufacturer would have been quite satisfied with a $8 toilet seat...except that so many contracts are written as 'cost plus'

[Tahoe3002]

MilSpec is part of the problem, but an even larger problem is the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). All government procurement is governed by this cumbersome system of regulations. My estimate is that it adds 30-50% to all government procurements for goods or services.

Your hard earned tax dollars at work. (Not to mention the "bureaucratic slugs" who call themselves purchasing agents.)

[crushelits]

WE NEED TO THREATEN IRAN?

Threats don't work.

Action does!

Not a la Jimmy Carter.

[UseYourHead]

I'm not sitting on a 8 dollar toilet seat 25 feet from a hard pack runway in the middle of a firefight. Oh wait, I didn't sit on any toilet seat, it was just a hole in a sheet of plywood. I wonder how much that plywood cost?

[expat_panama]

MilSpec is part of the problem, but an even larger problem is the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)...

Interesting.  I worked with the FAR for while and the FPR/ASPR before that.  Ten years ago Al Gore Junior made a big stink about gov't procurement and how he was going to "reinvent government"-- but he was just another one of those professional complainers with no solutions.  This world is filled with them that do and a lot more of them that complain about the doers but have nothing to offer as an alternative.

You perhaps got a better set of procurement regs in mind?

[BushisTheMan]

More electronic countermeasures to jam or predetonate remote mines.

I was wondering why we can't do more of this type of thing. Aren't they set off with cell phones mostly?

If this continues, I'd say we need to get rid of cell services in Iraq until our guys are out of there.

[RetiredArmy]

That I concur with. I know that during my active duty days, there were many times when I or one of my officers would toss in the money to actually buy some things that we would need when we were going to the field on an FTX. I wish I had all those dollars back now! ;^)

[dk/coro]

Nothing has changed -- or really will -- in the military procurement system.

As far back as my first naval aviation squadron in the mid 50's, early on, I was assigned and served as Material Officer, a very small department, that interfaced for the Maintenance Department with the Naval Aviation Supply system.

The first thing my "Chief Storekeeper" told this young "jg" was that the system does NOT WORK! Once that was understood, I commenced a weekly "parts run" -- flying down to NAS Jax from our hangar at Nas Norfolk with a pocket full of blank stub requisitions -- and, once there, headed straight to Overhaul and Repair -- and met my civilian buddies -- with a push cart and a spare-parts shopping list.

We yanked the precious reworked parts right out of the system before they ever were re-introduced into the regular supply chain. And, at Christmas, I bought the O&R guys a case of whiskey -- all out of govt. funds -- and delivered in by hand!

Of course, the squadron had superb aircraft readiness as a result; but our contemporaries were sucking air, due to the part shortage I helped exacerbate by my shenanigans.

This problem seems to be eternal -- and if it were not armor for the humvees, it would be something equally serious. In my view, Rummy is correct; but I do not forgive him for placing himself in that ludicrous "pr" position.