Thursday, March 26, 2009

You can kill the Revolutionary, but you can't kill the Revolution!

Bad News. The Department of the TDC, despite our best efforts, continues to bring havic, pain, and misery to the Department of Defense. I had hoped our efforts last year would have stifled their continued attempts to rob our government coffers of much needed funds. Alas our cries fell upon deaf ears, and I was forced into hiding until the heat died down (and yeah, no thanks to any of you for missing the message I hid the bold letters below).

I stood in the shadows as they awarded the BMDCS contract to Synercomm for what seemed like completely arbitrary reasons. I watched as the program fell into disarray and our taxpayer money went up in smoke. However, it almost appeared the BMDCS would be the last harrah for the Department of the TDC.

Appearances can be deceiving.

As I warned you last year they once again lifted SADIST from the grave. They called it a different name, Ship Enterprise Layered Defense, but SHIELD or SADIST means the same thing to me. I gasped in horror as they expanded the scope and tightened the deadlines. The DTDC all but crushed the poor company of Sabre Solutions in its tyrannical grasp.

However, it took more than scope creep, tenuous requirements, and the trojan stimulator horse to bring down the hearts and minds of Sabre. It is because of their noble work to rise up against the Department of the TDC that I felt compelled to once again stand up and take the reigns of the DTDC Watchdog. The program ended in December, and I held off for the right time to strike.

Now is that time.

Almost a year to the day the DTDC once again plans to compete the BMDCS after gross overruns and a Nunn-McCurdy investigation into SynerComm. This year they tout a "Back to Basics" approach. They claim that over the years the Battlefield Mortar Defense Radar grew in scope to the point of absurdity. They believe in a more effective system that focuses on the core tenents of a proposal. They say they want clear win plans, dynamic discriminators, and they're only going to focus on best value at the lowest cost.

If time taught us anything it is that when it comes to the Department of the TDC you must see them walk the walk before you listen to them talk the talk. With only 13 days to go before the release of the RFP, they better get walking!

Here we go again.