Paul also wants to weaken the military.
Posted on 04/09/2015 11:06:30 PM PDT by LibWhacker
The US military is in danger of losing its technological advantage unless it invests in research and finds ways to build innovative weapons much faster, top officials said Thursday.
The Pentagon unveiled an initiative to streamline its bureaucracy and tap into technological breakthroughs in the private sector amid growing anxiety that American forces' longtime hi-tech edge is slipping away.
The measures reflected "an overriding concern that our technological superiority is at risk," Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer, wrote in a report.
"Potential adversaries are challenging the US lead in conventional military capability in ways not seen since the Cold War," wrote Kendall, who has dubbed the initiative "Better Buying Power 3.0."
The challenge stemmed from the nature of new technologies such as drones or micro-computing, which are much more accessible and available to other countries than in the past, officials said.
Officials this week described a future battlefield in which potential adversaries could counter America's traditional advantages in air or sea power.
US commanders are already worried about sophisticated air defenses and anti-ship missiles. But officials said other countries are devoting efforts to creating precision-guided rockets and artillery that could possibly target biometric signatures, massive cyber warfare and systems that link soldiers with various robotic weaponry.
Gone are the days when a single innovation could allow the US force to be dominant in the skies or at sea for decades, Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work told a press conference.
"So we're going to have to be able to integrate commercial technology faster, absolutely," he said.
The reform initiative called for scaling back bureaucratic rules, attracting technically-savvy workers to oversee programs and designing weapons so that technological advances can be quickly added, according to Kendall.
That will mean building more "modular" or plug-and-play systems that are ready to accept new elements, including new sensors or other improved equipment, he said.
Although the reform initiative will help, Kendall said the key to maintaining the US military's dominance was spending more money on research and development and attracting talented workers to oversee weapons programs.
"But at the end of the day, the fundamental driver on how fast we can modernize is how much money we spend and on the quality of the people out there doing the work . . .," he said.
And if the government failed to adequately fund research and development, "you will not have a future weapons system."
Potential automatic budget cuts, which Congress has imposed on the entire federal budget, could severely undermine vital research and the time lost carried its own cost, Kendall said.
In the meantime, adversaries were investing in new weapons.
"Time is not recoverable. And if I don't do research, I have to do it later and take the time to do it," he said.
Suggestion. Get rid of all the known spies at Sandia Labs, AMES research center, Lawrence Livermore Laboratories and JPL. That would be a good start.
Paul also wants to weaken the military.
> Hasn’t helped that our last two democrat presidents have handed out American military secrets like so much candy.
Beat me to it but I bet they made more than a little pocket change on the deals...
I went on about this effect when the H1b visa issue was being pushed by clinton.
well. here ya go.
the next big military tech advancement will be coordinated swarming bots. ground, sea and air.
and we won’t be the ones to perfect it. it’ll be the chinese... as they have the technical construction capabilities that we pushed offshore
>> The Pentagon unveiled an initiative to streamline its bureaucracy...
In a wild, ill-informed estimation, I’m guessing at least a 35% percent efficiency improvement is possible by virtue of trying.
They need to look at how they procure equipment. I was the integrated product team lead on the miniaturization portion of the Future Combat Systems program. I worked for a subcontractor. If they really wanted the devices to be smaller the task should have been assigned at one of the lead integrators. But nobody wanted it as the task was impossible. Every contractor’s contract said their box would be x inches by y by z. These sizes were developed based on estimates from the various contractors (who gave themselves lots of room) long before the vehicles were designed. So, of course nothing fit. The contractors were not about to give up any real-estate and their contracts meant that they didn’t have to. The only reason they attended my meetings was to burn charge numbers.
I could go on for another 10 pages but nobody on FR is interested in that kind of detail. Rest assured, though, that every aspect of the procurement process makes it harder to develop anything, let alone state of the art or cutting edge equipment. There is no easy way to fix this as the procurement office resembles a huge, amorphous monster that can’t be changed, improved or killed.
Oh, one favorite anecdote. I think it was a general who insisted on a program that would solicit ideas from employees. My boss and a representative from Boeing therefore made a presentation in the lunchroom to the floor workers, none of whom even worked for the division which had the FCS contract. They set up a mechanism for submitting ideas that required an ACE (Advanced Collaborative Environment) account. Those accounts were controlled like addictive drugs. None of the floor people, who worked for another division, had accounts. I did have an account and could not figure out how to submit the idea. My idea would have saved hundreds of pounds but finally I said, “F8ck it. If they wanted it they wouldn’t have made it impossible to put it into ACE.” What my boss did was passive aggressive to say the least. Yeah, you want your suggestion program? I’ve got your suggestion program right here!
This is a (big, and growing) issue of exporting far, far too much of America’s manufacturing sector.
America needs to rebuild. America needs to stop importing everything, and we need to relearn what made America great.
Stop buying everything from China.
I find your experiences very interesting and learn from them sometimes.
Some of it could go for Pentagon Wars II and III.
Thank you. My career was frustrating as military contractor really don’t want an employee to be anything but an intelligent drone. I wanted to contribute to the defense of the nation. If I had it to do over I’d have bought a garage instead.
“Suggestion. Get rid of all the known spies at Sandia Labs, AMES research center, Lawrence Livermore Laboratories and JPL. That would be a good start.”
You need to include spies at the Pentagon, the US Senate, State Department and White House,especially the White House (Why who knows, if we don’t they will be posting plans and assessments of our allies’ nuclear facilities. Oh, wait!
Just my opinion.
Oldplayer
You have the civilian bureaucracy, which is bad enough. But just as bad is the bureaucracy of Beltway Bandit consulting firms. This is like an invasive species that just sucks the lifeblood whatever it infects. Sadly, many at these companies are retired military and civilian workers on their 2nd career.
“Stop buying everything from China.”
Good idea, but that will never happen until the Unions are under control. Right now they drive up costs and down quality. Until thats fixed, I don’t think the US manufacturing industry can return.
The DoD is a pension-granting political bureaucracy, with a side mission of national defense.
Yeah, I believe it.
Great post, love detail. Of course - keep in mind that everybody can see what you post. If you ruffle serious feathers... well... gotta be careful there. All other feathers can be ruffled though I suppose.
Gov’t contracting is quite a nwo beast.
You forgot a few alphabet agencies and there is no use in being so discriminating with some—you would be more likely to find ten righteous people in Sodom than the State Department.
“Of course - keep in mind that everybody can see what you post. “
Thank you for the warning. I’m 61 and I got Obama’d out of a job from my most recent company whose motto is: “You’ll buy whatever we build no matter how crappy because we’ve got Senators.” That worked until it didn’t. I did not go quietly into that good night. In an unprecedented move I got permission to submit an unsolicited proposal to our marketing VP. Our company had bought another company and we owned a design of theirs that could be immediately marketed to India. His response was that we wanted to sell them (X) and his goal was to sell (X), not some product he didn’t know about. I sent him the Indian military budget and pointed out that they could buy at most a handful of (X) but they needed and could buy hundreds of the new product.
As for the procurement issues. The stunning part is that everybody on both sides know all about them. Read any contract and point to the things that drive up costs and the contracting agency can tell you where they come from. The environmental lobby forbids the use of chromium and cadmium…because, uh warming or something. Then there are the small business set-asides…money for fake black or real Muslim owned businesses who then feed it back through lobbying. Some contracts require diversity programs, I’d guess that’s from the gay lobby. I have a soap box and the will to use it but nowhere to set it down.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, “politics is about who gets how much and when.” Odd that the truest words ever spoken in the political realm would issue forth from a Democrat.
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