Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!peregrine!elroy!ames!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!nosc!tetra!budden
From: budden@tetra.NOSC.MIL (Rex A. Buddenberg)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: U.S. Air Force Award of the ULANA Contract
Summary: Would be nice...
Message-ID: <705@tetra.NOSC.MIL>
Date: 6 Oct 88 00:03:25 GMT
References: <8809271246.AA01355@ulana.b.mitre.org.> <25188@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <1988Oct4.164454.16174@utzoo.uucp>
Reply-To: budden@tetra.nosc.mil.UUCP (Rex A. Buddenberg)
Organization: Naval Ocean Systems Center, San Diego
Lines: 43


Kent and Henry,

It would indeed be nice to accost the vendors, checkbook in hand.
Unfortunately, government, and military especially, procurement
just doesn't work that way.  First of all, you have to understand
that, between wars, and sometimes during them, the bean counters
are in charge.  The little guy behind four locked and guarded
Pentagon doors is not a little man staring at a big red button.
Rather, it is a little guy with green eyeshaes and a helluvalot
of large tomes telling you why you can't buy the button, much
less press it.  Unfortunately, whenever someone tries to beat
the system, often as not with the taxpayers best interests in mind,
a scandal somehow erupts and congress gives the little guy some more
rules to tell you how you can't do things.

Enough flame -- there are some very valid reasons as well.
Primary among these is standardization.  To this audience, the first
reason for standardization -- interoperability -- should be
second nature.  But, there is more.  Standardization for logistics
reasons is vital to the military.  I've had to keep equipment operating
in the Arctic, the Antarctic, Iwo Jima, Japan, and several places
in between -- a lot of which aren't covered by your corner repair
centers.  The Navy currently haves something over 35 radar repeaters
in their inventory and keeping them all in parts is driving the
logistics guys nuts.  The third reason for standardization is the
human reason -- keeping maintenance and operator training costs
within bounds.  A common man-machine interface across a large
installed base has very large (if subtle and usually unnoticed)
benefits (remember the cars with push-button controlled automatic
transmissions?).

By far the most effective means to gain this standardization is exactly
what the Air Force has done -- get an open, requirements contract
out on the street.  Then the whole Air Force, not just a couple bright
guys, is only a PO away from a solution that has virtually all
of the standardization benefits.  Remember Herman Wouk's line in
Caine Mutiny -- the system was invented by geniuses to be run by
idiots.  How many people in the Air Force really know what
they should be buying?  

Rex Buddenberg
USCG Headquarters