Defense contracting is the greatest grift of all time

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

 

 

 

[CitizenVectron]

We should have started a defense contracting firm in the mid-2000s, we'd all be rich by now. "Unified Defence Tech Systems" or some such generic name.

[SimpleG]

11 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

"Unified Defence Tech Systems" or some such generic name.

The name has to capture the American spirit. I suggest the Visionary Armor Guns Information National Association.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SuperSpreader]

Just now, SimpleG said:

The name has to capture the American spirit. I suggest the Visionary Armor Guns Information National Association.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Homeland United Protection, Defense, and Security Front Systems, or HUP-DSFS 

 

 

[Jason]

Homeland Executive Rapid Prototype And Development Energy Radiance Professionals

 

Otherwise known as the HERPADERP Corporation.

[Zaku3]

Day One Defense lads. We could even double dip and be a PMC.

[silentbob]

The Really Unexpected Missile Penetration System

 

or

 

TRUMP “Defending your Pussy Countries . . . Maybe”

[Jwheel86]

59 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

 

 

 

Don't google Zumwalt or LCS.

[Xbob42]

The solution is simple: Defense contractors that pump out trash must be killed by that trash.

[Fizzzzle]

Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at the White House in DC: One is from New York , another is from Tennessee and the third, is from Florida . All three go with a White House official to examine the fence.

 

The Florida contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works some figures with a pencil. 'Well,' he says, 'I figure the job will run about $900: $400 for materials, $400 for my crew and $100 profit for me.'

 

The Tennessee contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, 'I can do this job for $700: $300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $100 profit for me.'

 

The New York contractor doesn't measure or figure, but leans over to the White House official and whispers, '$2,700.'

 

The official, incredulous, says, 'You didn't even measure like the other guys! How did you come up with such a high figure?'

The New York contractor whispers back, '$1000 for me, $1000 for you, and we hire the guy from Tennessee to fix the fence.'

 

'Done!' replies the government official.

 

And that, my friends, is how government contracting works!

[Dodger]

I joked once that I should set up a fake online college called Southeastern New Hampshire University. Now I see South New Hampshire University commercials all the time. 

[Keyser_Soze]

3 hours ago, CitizenVectron said:

We should have started a defense contracting firm in the mid-2000s, we'd all be rich by now. "Unified Defence Tech Systems" or some such generic name.

 

Day One Jets

[cusideabelincoln]

As @Fizzzzle satirized, does any contracting have oversight?  Not necessarily all of the deals have to be shady, but the ones that are legit most likely aren't audited for actual fair market value.

[Snaynay1]

I deal with multiple government contracts a year from writing scopes of works for bidding to selecting and analyzing bids. It doesn't work like that. Maybe sometime in the past it did but now it doesn't.

 

Is there still stuff going on? Yeah, especially in the defense industry where generals pretty much go from working for the government to representing companies trying to get contracts.

[Fizzzzle]

40 minutes ago, Snaynay1 said:

I deal with multiple government contracts a year from writing scopes of works for bidding to selecting and analyzing bids. It doesn't work like that. Maybe sometime in the past it did but now it doesn't.

 

Is there still stuff going on? Yeah, especially in the defense industry where generals pretty much go from working for the government to representing companies trying to get contracts.

Yeah, I mean, it's definitely not that blatant. But in certain industries like defense where certain sectors have basically a blank check, and they're getting contracts from their old buddies. Or on the other end of the spectrum, like small scale local government projects that have little to no oversight.

[PaladinSolo]

The Ford is far from a grift, its really the first advancement in carriers in almost 50 years, it has a lot of automated systems allowing for nearly a thousand fewer sailors required, more than doubles power generation of the nimitz class needed for current and future systems.  The EM launch and its arresting systems are also required so that they don't damage lighter aircraft like drones which the older steam and hydraulic systems do.  Its biggest problem has more to do with the fact its literally 1 of a kind at this point, or basically a prototype.  

 

A grift to me is something like the star wars project, or that future combat systems or whatever it was called, not something that will actually get used.  The Littoral Combat ships are another one, they built ships meant to get close to shore where they can get blown to smithereens, lol...  Thats not to say the procurement process in which they develop systems in parallel to building them isn't incredibly stupid.

[Anathema-]

20 hours ago, cusideabelincoln said:

As @Fizzzzle satirized, does any contracting have oversight?  Not necessarily all of the deals have to be shady, but the ones that are legit most likely aren't audited for actual fair market value.

 

In my experience it is stringently above board and all the contacts are actually public. 

[Greatoneshere]

All I know is that at my MBA program they literally taught us in class, more than once, concepts like "grease the wheels" (yes, they called it that) to get international bureaucracy moving faster, you were expected not to "bribe" but "grease the wheels" to get things "moving" and this was an expected, assumed thing done in business, taught to graduate business students. 

 

This has held true since in the actual practice of business. It is bizarre, offputting, and I love doing it to fuck with other departments/companies.

[BloodyHell]

On 1/16/2021 at 9:29 PM, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

 

 

 

Thats a bit of hyperbole. The Ford is a bit more than an evolution. There are probably hundreds of thousands of offensive, defensive, navigation, scanning, sea and air launch, and comms systems that need to work together. And it needs to do it with a skeleton ceew.

 

It was always going to take years to get it right, even after it was built. You guys think that getting an open world game to operate at a stable level is tough, imagine trying to make the most technologically advanced floating fortress in history to work perfectly all the time! 

 

What I wouldn't give to manually steer an old warship in the open ocean, pre-computer assistedeverything, just to feel it compared to a 70 foot fishing boat. 

 

I don't know anything about the hypersonic weapons though. Probably a grift.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

I only post hyperbole