Rapid Fire 2011-10-11: Single Source MOD Contracting | Cyber-Consolidation
Oct 11, 2011 09:00 EDTRelated Stories: Americas - USA, Asia - China, Asia - Other, Britain/U.K., Budgets, Daily Rapid Fire, IT - Cyber-Security, Lobbying, Middle East - Israel, Official Reports, Procurement Innovations, Scandals & Investigations
- The UK’s Ministry of Defence (MOD) reviewed its single-source contracts which account for about 40% of its total procurement. While sole sourcing often does make sense, MOD hopes to get standardized cost data from contractors to increase transparency within that contractual framework.
- Under pressure because he let his friend Adam Werritty present himself as an adviser, MOD chief Liam Fox made an apologetic statement to try and clarify how events unfolded. Werritty visited Fox 22 times at the Ministry, and also met him during trips abroad. More on this: The Guardian, The Telegraph.
- Recruitment headaches. Does it make sense for the MOD to award a large contract for civilian recruiters to handle Army recruitment? Meanwhile, in the US, can you touch healthcare and retirement benefits without detrimental effects on recruitment?
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- Some Navy contractors are losing their jobs after unfavorable background checks, without recourse or much of an explanation. It’s because of bad credit, reckons the Virginian-Pilot.
- Stan Scott, executive director of the Virginia National Defense Industrial Authority, looks at what’s at stake for Virginia and the Hampton Roads region in case of significant defense cuts. An already large reliance on defense contractors is not stopping the state from competing with Maryland for Lockheed Martin’s attention. Nation-wide, jobs are what’s at stake, is the angle pursued by defense lobbyists according to the Boston Globe.
- Interactive chart showing who bought whom in the cybersecurity space.
- Military chiefs in Israel are pushing back against budget cuts voted by the Cabinet last Sunday, saying defense systems such as Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Arrow-3 won’t be sufficiently funded, and maintaining readiness at current levels may also be a challenge.
- Show of force. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) reviewed the joint responses from South Korea and the US [PDF] to North-Korean armed provocations. Conclusion: “relying on China to take the initiative vis-a-vis North Korea is not a viable policy.” The author would park F-22s on the peninsula. A collapse of North Korea is one of the scenarios that could lead to military conflict with China, contemplates RAND in a new paper on the subject.
- Equal opportunity cutters. Bloomberg columnists come out swinging in a transparently provocative oped: put the entire F-35 program on the chopping block, ask yourself why you’d want new carriers, shut down the M1 manufacturing plant. Swinging hard doesn’t mean you hit though. To end on more consensual ground, they’d put more money into drones.
