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The Department of War just shot the accountants and opted for speed

steveblank.com

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Re: The Department of War just shot the accountants and opted for speed

#21

Post by fragmede »

pragmatic wrote: post #19

So fast forward five years and 50% of our war materials are produced in foreign countries? I can't help but believe this is going to weaken our war footing because the dumbest people in the room are behind it. Thirsty Pete does not inspire confidence in the Department of War Thunder. I mean on the surface it sounds good, but LEAN is why we had no PPE on hand during covid. In order to have off the shelf supplies we ar…

The lack of PPE manufacturing in the US after 2021 is a travesty that does not simplify to LEAN is why we didn't. Dismantling the pandemic response unit didn't help. Not replenishing a stockpile of masks that existed for that specific reason didn't help. A lack of tooling supply base didn't help, Straight up corruption; no bid government contracts going to friends of the administration with no. proven capability to deliver (and they didn't). By the time this was discovered, months that could have been used to build and certify actual factories had been wasted.

Worse though, is 3M and Honeywell built factories to make masks, only to get fucked on it. Factories (must grow but also) take time to build. In the 6-9 months it took for them to build those factories after the initial delay, China started allowing exports again, and those factories folded basically before we got any use out of them. I wouldn't expect 3M to build needed factories a second time we need them to save our asses.

Re: The Department of War just shot the accountants and opted for speed

#22

Post by mcphage »

> The DoW is being redesigned to now operate at the speed of Silicon Valley, delivering more, better, and faster. Our warfighters will benefit from the innovation and lower cost of commercial technology, and the nation will once again get a military second to none.

So move fast and break things, and now the thing we’re breaking is our national defense?

Re: The Department of War just shot the accountants and opted for speed

#23

Post by giraffe_lady »

andrewmutz wrote: post #20
giraffe_lady wrote: post #4

Embarrassing regurgitation of propaganda. This is basically the military DOGE. Are these systems dysfunctional in some ways, could well-intended sweeping reforms improve them? Sure, maybe, I don't know much about it. Is that what's happening here? No, this a way to get the existing functions out from under the oversight and constraints of acquisition laws to reduce friction for corruption and war profiteering. If you…

Steven Blank (the author) is a respected member of the startup community and is not partisan. He's been working with the defense department for 10 years (across both administrations) to modernize the way the military buys technology. His work to create the "hacking for defense" project to modernize things is not at all like DOGE and preceeds it by many years https://www.h4d.us/

[flagged]

Re: The Department of War just shot the accountants and opted for speed

#25

Post by rkomorn »

M95D wrote: post #24

Remember Fat Leonard? This time there's going to be more than one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Leonard_scandal

Damn. Didn't know about this until now but it looks like, at least, he sure put in the effort.

"exploited the intelligence for illicit profit, brazenly ordering his moles to redirect aircraft carriers, ships and subs to ports he controlled in Southeast Asia so he could more easily bilk the Navy for fuel, tugboats, barges, food, water and sewage removal."

The devil works hard but apparently Fat Leonard works harder.

Re: The Department of War just shot the accountants and opted for speed

#28

Post by euroderf »

kingkawn wrote: post #17

[flagged]

Still tho, DoW is a bit more truthful innit ? After Iraq (and other fights) it should be obvious that the department's job is quite a bit broader than defense.

The idea that the department is strictly about defense is a comforting story we tell ourselves.

Re: The Department of War just shot the accountants and opted for speed

#29

Post by bonsai_spool »

thatguymike wrote: post #14

Based on this article alone, I can believe this is a good thing. The US military suffers incredibly from its monopsony position and without a doubt will get a heavy wakeup call (read: dead young people) next time it has to fight a real war. In addition the army should be the most accountable and results oriented branch of government, since it’s the only one that’s actively oppositional. If we can’t fix procurement th…

> In addition the army should be the most accountable and results oriented branch of government

The army isn't a branch of government - and if you then wish for Defense to be accountable, there's the question of how to allocate money for secret things.

I don't know how other countries do this and if there are better ways to structure this.

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