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From: nanis@llex.ll.mit.edu ( Jeff Nanis)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Power Armor
Message-ID: <1991May29.011237.7239@amd.com>
Date: 24 May 91 13:14:45 GMT
References: <1991May24.030024.8386@amd.com>
Sender: military@amd.com
Organization: MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Lines: 33
Approved: military@amd.com


From: nanis@llex.ll.mit.edu ( Jeff Nanis)


camelsho@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (James Seymour) writes:
>When queried, he ran off a whole list of stuff:  5 lbs 
>personal airconditioners (7 lbs if you want filtration), 
>layered Kevlar armors, reactive armors, heads up displays,
>integrated circuits, modular systems, power augmentation
>for hadicapped that run on neural inputs that funcion much
>like orginal limbs, hand/shoulder held/fired antitank weapons,
>etc.  

>	[Who's going to do the maintenaince on all that? --CDR]

	Contractors, like the 4000+ who maintained all the high-tech
toys in Desert Shindig. How else do you think things like the Apache
were able to achieve >98% availability rates? It's interesting to
look at the growth of contractor support during operational/combat
employment over the last 50 years. Much of the early days of EW
(up through Vietnam), the "electronic warriors" were civilans -
DoD employees or contractors. Although that particular function has
been hard-wired into the system a little bit, things like depot-level
maintenance are still handled by civilian professionals with many more
years experience than an E-6 whose been rotated around two or three
times in his 8 years of service.

	Currently CVs have more than a hundred contractors for support 
at all times. Does the future hold an increase in this trend? 

--
Jeff Nanis                               Radars 'r' us.  
nanis@ll.mit.edu                         An official opinion? Not on my life.