Rapid Fire March 1st, 2012: Supplier Relationship Management
Mar 01, 2012 08:30 ESTRelated Stories: Alliances, Americas - Canada, Americas - USA, Budgets, Daily Rapid Fire, Environmental, Fighters & Attack, Procurement Innovations, R&D - Contracted, Science - Basic Research, Think Tanks
- US SecDef Panetta told the House Budget Committee in a hearing yesterday that he would start planning for sequestration this summer if Congress has not reached a deal by then. It is likely he will have to, and that is not even factoring in new debates over the debt ceiling.
- From the Center for European Reform: What US retrenchment means for Europe and NATO [PDF].
- Mark Collins is rounding up videos of the recent 2012 Ottawa Conference on Defence and Security. One thing that was not provided there or elsewhere: a definitive price tag for the F-35. It’s hard to get there when ordered quantities are in a state of flux.
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- Foreign military sales as the hail Mary to sustain the national industrial base during DoD demand gaps?
- The RAND Corporation looked at the US Air Force’s Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) practices. The theory is to manage suppliers in a holistic, performance-focused fashion. In practice RAND finds that the Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) applies SRM only to weapon system spares and repair purchases with little institutional support and limited analytical capability.
- If you have expertise in cognitive radio, radio environment mapping and radio device software development, DARPA would like to meet with you: Advanced RF Mapping (RadioMap) Proposers’ Day, March 14, in Arlington, VA. This program “seeks to provide real-time awareness of radio spectrum use across frequency, geography and time” to alleviate spectrum congestion. Side note to the company using FBO.gov’s Interested Vendors List to advertise your software: don’t you think what you’re doing is a bit tacky?
- The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division (NSWCCD) issued a Request for Quote (RFQ) for integrated fuel-tank protection for tactical wheeled vehicles. They would like to see self-healing, fire-suppressing technology by June 2012 with tests likely to proceed at the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in Aberdeen, MD.
- Proposals for SERDP Exploratory Development (SEED) FY13 funding are due next week. The Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) and Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) are the US DoD’s environmental programs, working on a wide array of issues from environmental restoration to jet fighter noise.
- Video below on US Air Force research and tests on synthetic biofuels:
