Rapid Fire 2012-02-24: Federal Acquisition Rules - Or Lack Of - Circa 1941

• Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Bob Pap made his annual State of the Coast Guard address [PDF]. On acquisition:

”[T]here was a time when the Coast Guard operated 8 polar ice breakers. How did that happen? In 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt passed a hand written note to Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau – Morgenthau passed the note on to the Commandant, Admiral Russell Waesche, – it simply read, Henry I want the world’s best icebreakers, [signed] FDR’

I guess Federal acquisition Rules must have been easier then!”

• 7 US Marines died on Wednesday night in a crash between an AH-1W Cobra and a UH-1Y Huey during training west of the Yuma Training Range in California.

• The Obama administration follows a course of action suggested by Senate Armed Services Committee leaders earlier this month and implies it may cut off military aid to Egypt.

• Inspired by the British MOD, the US Army has been fielding kevlar-reinforced garment that looks like bicycle shorts since June last year. They have “gone through a couple of design iterations [..] and it’s [now] more comfortable and breathable and Soldiers are more willing and apt to wear it” according to Lt. Col. Frank J. Lozano, PEO Soldier protective equipment. “Breathable” is definitely a necessary property when you sometimes have to go without a shower for months.

• Meanwhile the Royal Canadian Navy is going to get new raingear by the summer, an acquisition funded under the Naval Improved Clothing and Equipment (NICE – if they may say so themselves).

• The US House Armed Services Committee updated its schedule with 5 new hearings on the FY13 DOD budget. See DID’s consolidated hearing calendar. Canada’s 41st Parliament has also restarted its defence hearings: the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence will hear the Chiefs of Staff of the Navy, Army and Air Force next Monday.

• Military historian Saul David talks about war logistics in the video below (the follow-up videos on the BBC’s website are sadly available only from the UK):