Of course, by the time we're through the current fiscal crisis and the clown posse* dealing with it - we may well be adopting a similar procurement philosophy...
United States: HIMARS: High Mobility Artillery Rocket System. $3.4 Million each. Great mobility, good range, decent mileage. When not in use, sits in motor pool consuming CLIII and CLIX funds and soldier time spot-painting and checking out the turn signals. Requires expensive Chemical Agent Resistive Coating paint.
Palestinian Authority: RLDT. Rocket-Launching Dump Truck. Cost: $50K (if bought new), and another $5K for pipes and labor to install launch tubes. Highly mobile, able to easily integrate into traffic without drawing attention, makes frequent stops, and can pick up garbage or construction debris when not lobbing rockets into Israel. Comes with phone number and instructions to call the Palestinian Authority if the driver operates the vehicle inconsiderately, such as frosting your car windows with backblast from a launch against the Zionist Entity. And given the realities of driving in the region, no one cares about the paint or turn signals, and, unlike the HIMARS, is a revenue generator when not being used to shell schools on the local kibbutz. H/t, Dusty for the pic.
*And I mean *all* of 'em, public and private, of all political stripes.
United States: HIMARS: High Mobility Artillery Rocket System. $3.4 Million each. Great mobility, good range, decent mileage. When not in use, sits in motor pool consuming CLIII and CLIX funds and soldier time spot-painting and checking out the turn signals. Requires expensive Chemical Agent Resistive Coating paint.
Palestinian Authority: RLDT. Rocket-Launching Dump Truck. Cost: $50K (if bought new), and another $5K for pipes and labor to install launch tubes. Highly mobile, able to easily integrate into traffic without drawing attention, makes frequent stops, and can pick up garbage or construction debris when not lobbing rockets into Israel. Comes with phone number and instructions to call the Palestinian Authority if the driver operates the vehicle inconsiderately, such as frosting your car windows with backblast from a launch against the Zionist Entity. And given the realities of driving in the region, no one cares about the paint or turn signals, and, unlike the HIMARS, is a revenue generator when not being used to shell schools on the local kibbutz. H/t, Dusty for the pic.
*And I mean *all* of 'em, public and private, of all political stripes.
Also, who else saw this post's title and thought of something completely different, say, the Marines' habit of "undocumented materiel acquisitions"?
Palestine: How to Murder Millions for just $10 a day!
US: How to spend $47Billion on a fantastic project which never gets produced or utilised.
Australia: How to ensure you only train enough personnel to run 2% of your viable assets.
France: see ccoking section