Re: [semi-OT] Good mags (was Re:Terrorist Groups)

["Robert J. Hansen" <rjhansen@xxxxxxxx>]

> Maybe the PCs are hired to find out why every piece of kit costs so

A friend who works as a military contractor told me this, actually.  And
no, it has nothing to do with a way to hide budgets for black
operations.  :)  The military functions as a unified whole.  In the
civilian world, if you have a gun but no ammunition, you just go to the
sporting-goods store and buy some.  In the military, you just die for
lack of ammo.  The difference between the two worlds means the military
puts an absolute premium on effective materiel management.

In 1999 I was hired by McLeodUSA to do some very high-end cryptographic
work for them.  After blowing a few hundred man-years of labor and about
$30 million in unrecoverable fixed expenses, McLeodUSA canned the
project.  They restarted from scratch, without bothering to revisit the
original design to see what it was about the original design that doomed
the project from get-go.  Another few hundred man-years of labor and $30
million later, they canned it again and only then did they undertake
proper, formal, design and analysis.

The military, on the other hand, doesn't have that luxury.

For every Netscape (who put out a pretty good browser on a shoestring
budget and in a very short time frame), there are a few dozen competing
firms who tried to play it just as fast and loose and failed miserably. 
What we see as "triumphs of the free market" really... well, aren't. 
It's an illusory triumph, once you take into account the also-rans who
did nothing to increase the world's wealth while going through huge
reams of money.  The military isn't in competition with anyone

McLeodUSA received over $1 billion in VC funding from one investor
/alone/.  They filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection recently. 
Their total assets are basically nonexistent.  A billion bucks, gone. 
Poof.  Because McLeodUSA decided that if they wanted to be competitive,
they had to cut corners managementwise just like everyone else.

The military doesn't get to file for Chapter 11.  They have a budget and
they have to stick to it, and if they don't pay a boatload of attention
to detail things will get misplaced and mislaid and people will die.  So
when you see that a toilet seat costs $600 for the Army, remember: the
toilet seat probably costs $5 for the Army.  What costs $595 is the
accountability trail that makes sure (a) the toilet seat will fit your
rear, (b) the toilet seat will survive a war zone, (c) the toilet seat
will be over a regulation latrine, (d) there will be a Private First
Class standing nearby with a toothbrush on clean-up detail, and (e) once
the war is over, that same toilet seat will come back from Afghanistan
and be placed in a storage locker somewhere, ready for (f) the next war.