This animated Flash presentation has been making the rounds lately. It shows the structural changes to the American defense procurement process since 1971, as 14 waves of iterative reforms have changed the defense procurement process. It is also available from the Center for Public Integrity, in PPS Power Point format.
Despite these successive changes, the American defense procurement spiral of weapons whose generational replacement cost rises faster than inflation has continued apace. So, too, has the time required to design and field weapons systems, a fact that makes the tendency toward gold-plated or poorly-conceived requirements even worse. The result has been a spiral of shrinking force sizes despite equal or higher costs, a phenomenon that has become widespread around the world.
Verizon Business Network Services Inc. in Ashburn, VA won a $2.5 billion under the firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity Defense Information Systems Network (DISN) transmission services – Pacific II (DTS-P II) contract. In return, they will provide end-to-end transmission services and capabilities essential to the USA’s Defense Information System Network – Pacific, the military’s consolidated enterprise level telecommunications infrastructure for the expanded Pacific region.
DTS-P II has a 5-year base period, followed by a pair of 2-year option periods and a 1-year option period; $2.5 billion is the maximum amount under all option periods. This RFP was announced via the Federal Business Opportunities website, and 2 offers were received by the Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization, Pacific (HC1019-09-D-2000).
Defpro recently covered a number of IDEX 2009 deals that received less notice. The article below strips out the smallest deals, and adds a number of details and additional background:
