Awful Contractors are Awful Generous!

In a move that is certain to gain favor with the DTDC, members of the Tareo capture team supported a philanthropic event in Palmyra, New Jersey.

If they can clean up waste in goverment spending like they clean up a beach, this will bode quite well for their runnings in the capture effort.

Prop-aganda

Looks like we entered the bigtime folks. Click on the image to see a letter sent to us by the evil empire itself!

While its obvious this letter is a load of bologna designed to turn back our noble work to find the truth, there's one detail worth pointing out.

They say they design for a probability of kill of 80%. What if the ARS mortars land near the BMDCS unit itself? Say this question outloud and see if it makes sense, "There is a 1 in 5 chance that a $150 million dollar system is destroyed."

Your tax dollars at work!

Sell Your Sole Source

Ahoy fellow DTDC vigilantes! This week I happened upon a bit of information regarding the intended producers of the BMDCS TR Modules, RF Corp.

"RF Corp. is headquartered in Syracuse, NY. They have been producing high quality T/R modules for over 15 years and have been supplying DTDC contractors with modules for 10 years. DTDC used their T/R modules for the successful AN/TPS-559 and MSTAR programs."

That's not a lot of information, but would more information even be helpful? Probably not. What would be great to know is that if the DTDC is going to buy so many TR modules for their systems, is RF Corp able to establish volume discounts? It'll be like Costco for obsolete technology!

May I have ten thousand marbles, please?

Niedermayer! DEAD!
Dean Wormer! DEAD!
Hopes of successful BMDCS execution! DEAD!

Here's some more information on the contractors. Not only are they technical incompetent but programmatically they lack ability, too. Looking at past government records, we find that one company went waaay over Cost on some of their recent projects. They have a long way to go to prove that the million plus dollars spent on each BMDCS will not become 10s of millions. Our next lack-luster participant can't create a Schedule, let alone perform to one. They should have completed their last contract in 4 years. At the 4 year mark they were still figuring out what goes into a successful PDR presentation. The final company gets caught off guard more often a five year old in a fun house. If they don't learn to effectively manage Risk they'll find themselves crying alone in the middle of the mirror maze just like I...never did.

Rich Contractor, Poor Contractor

Did you know that under the Freedom of Information Act we, the American public, can inquire with government agencies who must then provide documentation on their actions? The whole idea is that this law improves visibility and accountability to the contractors that do what the image to the right so eloquently captures.

Of course like so many government initiatives this sounds great on paper, but in the end those companies, even the ones accepting billions of dollars are in no way required to be particularly transparent or responsive. Did you know it can take months to get a response on a FOIA request for money available to contractor?

That time limit is particularly prohibitive for the BMDCS contract. If we had waited until last Friday to file our request we would not recieve a response until well after the contractors had already stolen off with the money and taken their usual egregious profits from the public coffers. Their executives would be buying their next Maseratis before we had a chance to take action!

Luckily, we started watching years ago and filed that FOIA request early in 2007. We now know that the money available to contractor for the BMDCS is approximately ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS!!!!!1! If that doesn't light a fire under the feet of those already getting burned by the Department of the TDC, what does?

At least the sea bass are ill tempered

The rumors around Death Star Systems and their Shiva Weapon System grow more concerning every day. Would you believe that the last time they tried to deliver a Shiva weapon system it arrived a year late? Upon it's first deployment, the laser system aiming software reversed its ENU coordinates causing the high energy beam to focus on a nearby tree. Imagine if the tree was a school! Imagine if the school had bunnies in it! Horrible is right.

Of course this situation begs the question as to whether or not the contractors are ready to handle the practically inevitable debacle of working with Death Star Systems. How could they possibly compensate for DSS mismanagement when we've already seen in the past that the 3 contractors can barely keep their own systems on time and on schedule?

Its a shame the contracting officer for the DTDC and one of the higher-ups at Death Star Systems went through the same leadership development program together. That essentially means the contractors' hands are tied due to another no-bid contract put in place by the secret society that seems to run shop over there. Does anyone have some good news?

Awful one and one for awful

Ok folks, you're going to want to sit down for this one. We have our first details on the trio of contractors that are participating in the BMDCS competition.

As expected the 3 bidders are all relatively large companies with some history building combat systems. Apparently they all had a hand in the development of SHIELD. I'm sure they're all ready to tout their history building combat systems like that makes them qualified. Keep in mind Russia also has a history building communism, America has a history of building democracy on foreign soil, and Microsoft has a history of building operating systems. I have a cousin with a history of cooking chestnuts after Christmas dinner, and every year he ends up with burnt thumbs.

Experience is not to be confused with competence.

In this case we have 3 companies each with their own special trait that makes them woefully unqualified to deliver on this contract. For example, you have one company that couldn't engineer an Radar if they had Skolnik himself on the team. There's another company that thinks they know System design but are in for a rude awakening if they don't correct their reputation. The third musketeer essentially learned all the lessons of "The Mythical Man Month" the hard way and delivered disappointing Mission Software.

All this information comes straight from our source very close to the Department of the TDC. It concerns me knowing that I may have such a close connection to such an evil establishment, but if that's the sacrifice I must make, so be it.

The Truth can be Adjusted

Great news fellow watchdogs! Today we received an anonymous tip indicating the Department of the TDC made a deal with Death Star Systems (DSS). Per the agreement, DSS will provide the laser system for the upcoming BMDCS proposal.

First, let's bring you up to speed on Death Star Systems. Founded in the late 60s by current CEO, M. Clayton, the company makes it's money by provided death dealing lasers to anyone with low enough morals and deep enough pockets to deserve one. Northrop and Raytheon partnered to create a similar system, Talon, which you can see here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcs0d0pDeQA

Their latest line of products, Baseline Shiva, is currently in play for the upcoming DTDC proposal. Apparently the contractors will have a choice between two weapon systems and will have to figure out for themselves which one fits the bill. And what bill is that? That's right, the bill to all of us tax payers for another costly, ineffective combat system.

Until next time, keeping watching.

See Silver Sink

As the Department of the TDC spins its wheels in silence preparing for the proposal, let us turn our attention today to SeaSilver, one of the current competitors for the Interceptor Vessel proposal.

Founded who-knows-when by who-cares-who, this company currently works to perform the ol' square-peg-round-hole song and dance to sell DHS a boat will meet their needs for protecting coastal waters. What they're not talking about is how their ability to meet the requirement is severely undermined by their boat's gas-guzzling dual-engine design.

How do I know about this potentially flawed design? Don't worry about what Helios knows. The question we need to answer is how Sea Silver is going to meet the prop specs with a faulty design. Sounds like they're taking tips from the DTDC playbook!