Re: [FT] Military Overcharging

Derk Groeneveld wrote:

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> On Sat, 30 Jun 2001, Alan and Carmel Brain wrote:
>
> > From: "David Rodemaker" <dar@horusinc.com>
> >
> > > Once again, there is a less fine line between "maximizing
profitability"
> > and
> > > "charging the market price" to "sticking to the government because
we can"
> > > (remember those $900 toilet seats, and $500 wrenches back in the
70's or
> > > 80's?) I would guess that it happens more than we know but less
often than
> > > we are afraid of...
> >
> > Tall Tales But True Dept.
>
> I loved those, thanks :)
>
> Anyway, as for milspec kit costing more, even when selling a simple
off
> the shelf wrench it's more expensive. Why? Simply because the whole
> milspec documenting apparatus has to be run for the simple wrench.
Which
> is why we always have a seperate list of 'commercial' items that we
> recommend the customer to buy at a nerby hardware store. Of course,
> there's always some who want to buy it through us. Which costs.
>
> Cheers,

The MIL Spec problem comes about from a large number of peacetime
warriors with
nothing to do.	The specification for the C-130 Hercules transport was a
total of
400 pages.  The pentagon did not have the man-hours to specify
everything, and
left much of the details to the aircraft manufacturers.  Four hundred
pages may
seem like a lot, but the specification document for the C-141 Starlifter
could not