Despite more than 130 urgent-need requests from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force while it was deployed in Iraq, less than 10 percent were fulfilled and many were "canceled, delayed" or led to solutions which were not asked for, according to government watchdog Project On Government Oversight.
POGO, citing an allegedly canceled March presentation by 1 MEF technology staff to the Defense Department's Office of the Director for Defense Research and Engineering, declared May 31 that the requests "frequently languished" at coalition headquarters until U.S. Central Command officials "intervened," restoring urgency to the process.
Unrequited needs included counter-improved explosive device technology, including Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, and for surveillance, especially Scan Eagle unmanned aircraft, POGO announced while publishing copies of the supposed 1 MEF presentation. The Associated Press and Wired News recently also reported on the leaked presentation (PDF).
"Congress should undertake an in-depth investigation into the situation with rapid acquisition at the Defense Department to ensure that the right balance is struck between getting equipment into the field rapidly while maintaining accountability," declared POGO defense investigator Nick Schwellenbach.
POGO often lambastes Capitol Hill and the Pentagon for alleged waste, fraud and abuse in the defense acquisition realm, and their muckrakers have helped the likes of Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) -- the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and legislative thorn in the side of the military industrial complex -- highlight questionable acquisition decisions such as the scandal-borne Boeing-Air Force aerial refueling tanker deal years ago.
But to be sure, the Marines have also led the way at times when it came to getting the U.S. military juggernaut to provide badly needed technologies to front-line war fighters -- especially MRAPs. Officers in Washington appearances have discussed for years how insurgents have exploited the Humvee's flat-bottomed vulnerability, stacking mines and shaping blasts to flip the workhorse transports. The Marines in 2003 reached out to Force Protection for its Cougar and Buffalo MRAPs, while the Army has followed more slowly, coming around this year to earnestly swapping out its Humvees in Iraq for MRAPs.
When I interviewed Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Armed Services seapower and expeditionary forces subcommittee, in early spring for a DTI profile I asked him why he thought the Marines and Army were so different in their culture over something like the MRAPs. "The Marines have kind of taken the attitude that a 90 percent solution right now is better than a 100 solution years away," Taylor said. The Army leans toward a total solution later, he opined.
--Michael Bruno
I am a 2 tour Vietnam Veteran who recently retired after 36 years of working in the Defense Industrial Complex on many of the weapons systems being used by our forces as we speak.
Politicians make no difference.
We have bought into the Military Industrial Complex (MIC). If you would like to read how this happens please see:
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/03/spyagency200703
Through a combination of public apathy and threats by the MIC we have let the SYSTEM get too large. It is now a SYSTEMIC problem and the SYSTEM is out of control. Government and industry are merging and that is very dangerous.
There is no conspiracy. The SYSTEM has gotten so big that those who make it up and run it day to day in industry and government simply are perpetuating their existance.
The politicians rely on them for details and recommendations because they cannot possibly grasp the nuances of the environment and the BIG SYSTEM.
So, the system has to go bust and then be re-scaled, fixed and re-designed to run efficiently and prudently, just like any other big machine that runs poorly or becomes obsolete or dangerous.
This situation will right itself through trauma. I see a government ENRON on the horizon, with an associated house cleaning.
The next president will come and go along with his appointees and politicos. The event to watch is the collapse of the MIC.
For more details see:
http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2006/11/inside-pentagon-procurement-from.html
Posted by: Ken Larson | June 01, 2007 at 08:33 PM