Gates is turning out to be a good vhoice for Sec Def

[SoCalDem]

Gates Proposal Reveals His Alienation From Procurement System

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/06/AR2009040603246.html?hpid=topnews

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 7, 2009; Page A04

After reading a newspaper article's report that a particular armored vehicle had dramatically cut fatality rates in Iraq, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and other senior defense officials traveled 80 miles northeast to Aberdeen Proving Ground in spring 2007 to see for themselves how the V-shaped hull of the costly Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle deflected the worst blast effects of buried explosives. Within weeks, and after some pointed demands for the MRAPs from Capitol Hill, Gates decided to make accelerated production of the vehicles his top priority, using a special task force that circumvented the department's normal purchasing methods -- and the initial opposition of the Army and the Marine Corps. The results were not perfect -- an inspector general's report said later that in its rush, the department overspent by tens of millions of dollars -- but they were effective: Thousands of additional MRAPs flooded into Iraq and fatality rates dropped precipitously.



In calling yesterday for "a dramatic change in the way we acquire military equipment," Gates showed his slow but palpable alienation from the so-called iron triangle of defense contractors, lawmakers and military service executives that has long promoted building the best weapons systems, no matter what the price. In the future, he said, weapons should be engineered to counter "the actual and prospective capabilities of known future adversaries," not what a potential adversary might create with "unlimited time and resources."

[WI_DEM]

1. I actually have less of a problem with Gates than with Geitner.

[liberalmuse]

2. I hope so.

I'm a little leary of him, Geithner and Summers. I hope they all change my mind.