Rapid Fire August 14, 2012: CCL/USML Merger Plans

“The G4S model says ‘Here is a cost envelope within which I have to deliver an outcome and I have to do it incredibly leanly with very little resilience’.

G4S were literally hiring people and expecting to deploy them three days later. They were trying to build up a management structure overnight and they placed a lot of dependence on the work force – for example getting them to schedule their own shifts by accessing an internet site.

The military came at it from the exact opposite extreme. ‘What’s the job that needs to be done? OK, we’ll do it. Whatever it takes we’ll provide massive resourcing.”

• The US Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute released a monograph on arms control and European security. It is not optimistic on the future of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE) since Russia in effect pulled out of it in 2007, though they think it’s well worth modernizing and salvaging.

• It remains very unclear how USS Porter and a 300,000 ton Japanese oil tanker came to collide in the Strait of Hormuz. At least no one was injured. Update: a first-hand account of the encounter.

• Cmdr. Michael P. Ward II was relieved of his duties just days after been put in charge of the USS Pittsburgh submarine “based upon allegations of personal misconduct.” The Navy leaves it at that in its official statement, but press reports tell a sordid tale: sub commander relieved of duty after woman alleges he faked death to end affair. May he be introduced to a very special female supervisor who has just the right treatment in store for him. It must be summer heat.