I was watching the movie clip I started to believe I was seeing the real meetings at the Pentagon. Then I thought about the recent launches of the newest Naval Fleet Vessels and the subsequent subsystem system failures.
It kind of reminds me of the intro to The Six Million Dollar series and how ludicrious the military leaders have become.
The armored fighting vehicles have become like the Scfi novels and video games featuring Battle Mechs with every concieveable offensive weapon mounted on them. This is absolutely crazy.

Having non-warfighters involved in equipment design, specification, development and procurement doesn't help much either. The pile of lily-livered civilians involved as spectators, incapable of making decisions is pathetic.

You really rang the bell on this on!!!

What do you mean?! We can't waste Federal
money on the military service! What about the
welfare state, which must be allowed to grow and
grow ad infinitum into the trillions and beyond?! How can you talk about such trivia as the defense of the nation and of the citizens?!

this reminds me of the "OSHA Cowboy" cartoon
from the seventies:::

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=o...

the process of DoD acquisition is amazing! -- j
.

I think we need to redefine what “treason” is. Endangering the US people deliberately should be in this definition.

A typical example of governmental incompetence. Instead of, "If it doesn't work, fix it" -- it becomes, "If id doesn't work, use it anyway."

It is obvious who benefits as you point out. The question then to ask is can it be stopped? The answer is a resounding NO!

Verification and Validation does not get officers promoted...

Yes, they did cover the shortcomings pretty well in the video. It's excellent.
All that wasted, when all the people needed was a more modern-armed and weapon-familiar militia.

While only moving half the people... so the real cost was 4 times as much to move troops to the front line... Then we built HumVees.

Gets my vote for accurate parody of the decade. They only missed noting the unit cost was more than double the original vehicle design (while delivering none of the benefit.)

This mindless bureaucratic approach to military acquisition has been ingrained since at least the Civil War, so blaming any current or recent administration is out of place. The War Department resisted acquisition of multiple shot rifles until the Spanish American war, declaring it would only encourage "wasting ammunition." Smokeless powder weapons were also resisted, as the logisticians felt the loss of smoke for cover would leave riflemen exposed to enemy fire.

The U.S. Navy resisted acquisition of John Holland's submarine design, partly because they felt submarine warfare was sneaky and immoral. It took the Pearl Harbor disaster for the military to recognize that the aircraft carrier had taken the place of the battleship as the major striking force.

Lockheed was well on the way to developing a jet fighter in 1940, and was rebuffed because anything without propellers was suspect. Numerous weapon designs were miserable failures during the WW II conflict, but the cumbersome bureaucracy that was created lived on.

The F-111 Tri Service Fighter story is well known, rejected by the Navy and Marines, and a huge waste of resources. Only the Air Force use as light bomber kept the aircraft from being a complete failure.

So many other examples that it's an embarrassment. I tried as best I could to avoid implementing stupid decisions during my years in acquisition, but sometimes the bureaucracy wins, regardless of waste.

Yeah. I know one too...

Jan

It certainly appears to apply. Look at David Petraeus, Colin Powell, and others. I knew a Colonel who retired because he didn't want to play the politics to get promoted to General.

The only thing to remember is that it's the same with all of the governments. The only difference is that this one has more money. If a government ever comes to power that really operates effectively, that will be the next empire.

I agree, hilarious!

I thought once one gets that high up in the military, being a politician was no longer optional. :)

Guess that's why there is so much "military grade" surplus available at cheap prices (not necessarily inexpensive) in "surplus stores."
While you make a great point, there are some military components that are good quality as surplus, for example, some electronic components. I built a stereo amplifier using some such dumb components (capacitors/resistors/potentimeters/LEDs) combined with more advanced smart (non-military) retail components.

The video is awesome.

This is not a new situation!
The government in literally every area is incompetent. As I have stated in the past every agency of government charged with developing anything will purposely screw up so they can get more money to correct the problem. Only they never do correct the problem because that would mean they don't get more money for that situation. It is a "merry" go round and they know it. There is a charade that takes place between the military in this situation and the congress investigating what the problem is. And that is how the US government works.

When I see reports such as this I remain hopeful that they are disinformation, intended for some other purpose than reassuring the American Public.

Perhaps you view this from the wrong perspective. The system works very well for those in power and profit from the industrial military complex. Viewed from this perspective, things are moving along very well. Ron Paul explains this very well in his book “Plowshares.”