Andy Marshall, the Pentagon’s ‘Yoda,’ dies at age 97. A controversial character for sure. Here’s a good article on Marshall from 2014. A slice: “It is clear that what he envisioned was the antithesis of the dominant RAND approach: systems analysis.”
Link: “Twelve additional F-35s and three KC-46 tankers rank among the Air Force’s wish list of items it would like to have, but couldn’t afford in its fiscal year 2020 budget.” Excuse me? The Air Force wants more of the two programs that have been giving it deficient deliveries? It’s like a child writing to Santa Claus asking for defective toys. Moreover, the Air Force wants $579 million more for “readiness recovery” after it had robbed the O&M budget to make more investments. “I spent my lunch money on video games, and now I’m hungry, give me more lunch money.”
Related: How the US Army cut programs to boost lethality. “Under Secretary Ryan McCarthy said earlier this month that the Army plans to cut $22 billion in current programs across the five-year defense plan.” Take note Air Force. Looks like the Army managed to perform tradeoffs to find money for high priorities rather than going to Congress demanding additional billions. One service looks responsible, the other, irresponsible.
“Roper Warns Boeing On Tankers After Walking KC-46 Line. The Air Force is once again accepting deliveries of the troubled tankers — but the service’s acquisition chief warned Boeing must get its act in order ASAP.”
Speculative: It will take China more than 10 years to compete with Boeing, Airbus, says CEO of Dassault Systemes
“In the coming weeks, the Pentagon—through its partner, the General Services Administration—will bid out a cloud-based contract for enterprisewide email, calendar and other collaboration tools potentially worth as much as $8 billion over the next decade.” OK, so the DOD has about 2 million employees (civilian + active duty). That’s ($8 billion / 2 million / 10 years) = $400/year per person. You can buy the same MS Office 365 + cloud for $99/year per person for you business, off the shelf. Of course, many contractors also use government computers, there are security requirements, and the contract probably has options for other work.
“$17 million parking garage coming to Mayport Naval Station. Garage will support Littoral Combat Ship program, employees. The work to be performed provides for the design and construction of a five-story, 1,355-vehicle structured parking facility. The project is expected to be completed by April 2021.” Sounds like an expensive garage for the non-performing LCS. I just want to note that, on average, a 5-story parking garage costs about $8.56 million, or 64% more than the Navy’s plan.
“This week the United States Department of Defense (DOD) launched the Defense-Industry Talent Exchange Pilot Program. This acquisition-focused pilot program will enable 13 DOD and private sector participants to gain a better understanding of each other’s business operations, and share innovative best practices.” So 13 individuals will be exchanged, while in FY2016 alone a minimum of 645 high-ranking DOD officials went to industry. USD(A&S) Ellen Lord herself came over to the DOD from the contractor Textron, as Actin SecDef Shanahan from Boeing. I can’t imagine that there is a lack of a revolving door in the Pentagon.
DARPA’s next project: Design a Space Development Agency. Looks like the recommendations have nothing to do with organization and everything to do with a wish-list of cool space architectures. I wonder what the Air Force’s Space and Missile Command thinks about USD(R&E) choosing DARPA to design what it will be doing.
US Air Force says it needs nearly $5 billion for hurricane and flood damage. And here is the threat: “These are just the first decisions that we had to make yesterday,” Wilson said, adding that “61 projects in 18 states are not going to happen because we have not gotten a disaster supplemental for Tyndall.” I see this as extortion. Congressmen, money won’t flow to 18 states if you don’t turn the spigot back on. Two bases received damage, and they want $5 billion (all of hurricane Katrina cost $81 billion!!). What’s worse, a lot of that damage at Tyndall with the F-22s was because of the Air Force’s ineptness. The aircraft, sitting in a hanger, couldn’t get to a readiness level where they could be moved. Astounding. What happens if they were needed for combat? “Umm, check back next fiscal year, maybe they’ll be ready if you give us more money.”
“The Pentagon’s new Joint Artificial Intelligence Center is about to deploy its first operational project, a joint venture with Special Operations Command to predict helicopter breakdowns before they happen.” Link is here. They pretend like this is new. The Automated Logistics System was first tried out in the 1970s, I believe, with disastrous results. That was repeated in the F-35 (ALIS system). This doesn’t mean it’s not worth another shot though. You probably need an organization outside the usual chain to make this innovative stuff, like predictive maintenance, work. I’d note that AI won’t solve the world’s complex problems. A failure to predict has to be anticipated.
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