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

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

#101

Post by nradov »

themafia wrote: post #74
bonsai_spool wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> there's the question of how to allocate money for secret things. In the history of war I find very few examples where an obscure secret technology was the key to military victory.

Cryptography, radar, proximity fuses, and nuclear bombs are all examples of obscure secret technologies that were keys to military victory in WWII.

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

#102

Post by Hizonner »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #89
Hizonner wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a difference between an informal name that catches on organically and isn't politically charged, and an highly visible, ostentatiously political renaming specifically intended to make a point.

You’re telling me “Obamacare” isn’t politically charged? It was originally a political slur.

1. It's not politically charged now.

2. It's not all over government Web sites. In fact I doubt it's on them at all.

3. Cabinet-level officials aren't giving stupid speeches about how important the name is in reflecting a Whole New Approach.

4. I don't remember Obama objecting to it at the time... nor did Obama go on TV and say "It will now be called OBAMACARE in honor of me, the greatest and only competent President ever".

5. Actually I don't remember it even being a "slur". The first draft was based on Romneycare. There was also "Hillarycare", which might have actually been pejorative. In any case it wasn't anything like on the level of the President or the Secretary of anything making a bunch of noise about it.

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

#103

Post by [deleted] »

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/

[deleted]

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

#104

Post by dgoodell »

I think we use the same PPBE process at NASA. Many of the systems and procedures that NASA uses are are defense-derived. If it's anything like what we do, then it's a total mess and we mostly just go through the motions with it, knowing it doesn't actually reflect reality and it's kind of a waste of time for everybody.

However, it's risky to assume that scrapping a crappy system will result in things being better. The current shitty system was almost certainly the result of scrapping and replacing something else that had some problems.

Anyway, hopefully this works well, because we'll probably end up copying it at NASA.

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

#105

Post by nradov »

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…

Sure, why not? The USA is already a leading international arms dealer. Demand is growing rapidly as countries like Russia, Iran, China, and North Korea make aggressive moves against their neighbors so we might as well get a piece of the sales.

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

#106

Post by ImPostingOnHN »

throwup238 wrote: post #83
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

That page is out of date. Fat Leonard was sentenced last November to fifteen years. With time served he’ll be there for the next seven years or so.

He will probably be pardoned.

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

#107

Post by celeritascelery »

themafia wrote: post #74
bonsai_spool wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> there's the question of how to allocate money for secret things. In the history of war I find very few examples where an obscure secret technology was the key to military victory.

The Manhattan project is a pretty obvious example. The past world wars were full of technological advances that world powers were trying to keep away from enemies.

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

#109

Post by simonw »

lovich wrote: post #55
andrewmutz wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/

He’s using partisan terminology like Department of War. Fairly certain he’s a partisan

Sadly if he called it the Department of Defense he would also be expressing a partisan preference. Even the name of that arm of the government is "partisan" right now.

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

#110

Post by [deleted] »

SpicyUme wrote: post #62
ACCount37 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is an off the shelf FPV drone with a grenade strapped to it a "best in class" weapon? No. By now, its battlefield lethality exceeds that of small arms and artillery shells. Take that as a lesson on "best in class" systems. The "best" system is often one that's barely "good enough", but can be manufactured at scale. And, what can US manufacture at scale today? Oh.

>By now, its battlefield lethality exceeds that of small arms and artillery shells. The war in Ukraine seems to be showing this to not be true. Drones are used as much as they are because they do not have enough artillery. Are they useful, yes. But they do not replace artillery. Maybe in another type of war, but that is another issue, what is the next war we expect to find ourselves in? For all the talk of China dete…

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