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2022-04-16 -Land of the Free

As Silicon Valley Tries to Enlist, the Pentagon Strangles Innovation

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Posted by 3dc 2022-04-16 03:01|| || Front Page|| [4 views ] Top

#1 Not exactly. AFAICT, the more the bureaucracy they added in government to "avoid graft and corruption" the less that gets accomplished and the more corruption it takes to get anything done.

Posted by magpie 2022-04-16 03:12|| 2022-04-16 03:12|| Front Page Top

#2 Equipment from large military contractors and other countries are also part of the effort. However, the equipment listed above is available commercially at dramatically cheaper prices than what’s offered by the large existing defense contractors, and developed and delivered in a fraction of the time.

"Government is not the solution. Government is the problem."
~ President Ronald Reagan

Posted by Besoeker 2022-04-16 04:56|| 2022-04-16 04:56|| Front Page Top

#3 The Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations (DFARs) were massively expanded after c.f. major corruption in Naval procurements circa the 80s. They impose a significantly complex process that entails identifying requirements, validating them, issuing a formal request for proposals, evaluating the proposals, negotiating, and contract issuance. Then the actual procurement begins. Lots of people earn lots of certifications authorizing them to carry out various steps / roles in the process. (Mine is SPRDE Level 3 from a decade ago FWIW. A search on that will bring up more than you want to know about the whole procurement mess.)

Congress has divided the DOD budget into major line items, with detailed sub-categories. Line 6 in the DOD budget is for RDT&E, the stages for meeting operational needs with tech. 6.1 is basic research, 6.2 is early applied R&D, and so on through procurment, validation, and test / deployment of items, etc.

It's illegal to spend money from one sub-line to another. Only Congress can do that.

So one issue that arises WRT off the shelf tech is, what line item must be used to fund this. Another is, what are the formally validated requirements for it? How will the off the shelf item be validated WRT meeting those requirements?

Systems engineers get involved in most cases because the tech item doesn't stand / work alone, so interactions with larger systems must be defined and validated. And usually that means across the service branches.

It's a frigging mess. Palantir challenged the long, slow, bumbling attempt at an integrated Army info sys by providing analysts with a flexible way to assemble tactical level data / intel, share observations / questions, etc. The brass hated it. The boots on the ground analysts were enthusiastic users.

Palantir founder Peter Thiel previously had co-founded PayPal with ... Elon Musk. Musk is issuing a similar challenge to the Beltway swamp with SpaceX.

You will note where those two align WRT markets, free speech, etc.

Posted by lotp 2022-04-16 09:32|| 2022-04-16 09:32|| Front Page Top

#4 ^ Good to hear from you again, lotp.

Posted by Matt 2022-04-16 09:34|| 2022-04-16 09:34|| Front Page Top

#5 Thx, Matt.

Posted by lotp 2022-04-16 09:45|| 2022-04-16 09:45|| Front Page Top

#6 So, here is the Defense Acquisition University (yes, there's such a thing) page on SPRDE certification levels for Science & Technology Mgmt, the sub-category of SPRDE that I had to be certified in to manage a DOD research grant program and to serve as the technical rep for the contracting officer on a contract.

It was the longest 2 years of my life.

We're talking many years of time and money spent in accruing certs (for guvvies) and equivalents for contractor personnel to learn their way around the maze. Compare the results at Boeing of late with the agile design / build / test / redesign method at SpaceX to decide if the investment of taxpayer dollars is still cost beneficial.

Posted by lotp 2022-04-16 09:56|| 2022-04-16 09:56|| Front Page Top

#7 lotp, you're having a remarkable career. The one procurement issue that keeps floating across my layman's field of vision is the USN's surface combatant problem, which is periodically addressed in detail here. Assuming surface combatants are still relevant after the recent events in the Black Sea, we're in a world of trouble.

Posted by Matt 2022-04-16 11:29|| 2022-04-16 11:29|| Front Page Top

#8 Posted by: lotp 2022-04-16 09:32
Palantir founder Peter Thiel previously had co-founded PayPal with ... Elon Musk. Musk is issuing a similar challenge to the Beltway swamp with SpaceX.

My organization acquired Palantir...the brass hated the fact that we needed it for our version of targeting downrange, but it is very effective. Really good at visualization, especially the flow of bad guy monies.

Interesting that Elon Musk was part of the group that brought Paypal to the fore. A large um, venture capitalist bunch was involved as well that was rumored to have connections to a certain agency.

This continues to prove that things are never as they seem. Now I am not sure that I trust Musk.

Posted by Tennessee 2022-04-16 12:10|| 2022-04-16 12:10|| Front Page Top

#9 /\ My organization acquired Palantir...the brass hated the fact that we needed it for our version of targeting downrange...

They "hated it" because it conflicted with their highly proprietary Distributed Common Ground System-Army (DCGS-A)

......"a system-of-systems that supports the intelligence warfighting function to assist the commander's"......POS system

...that the troops hated and routinely parked in the mop and broom closet.

Posted by Besoeker 2022-04-16 12:23|| 2022-04-16 12:23|| Front Page Top

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