The Washington Post has an article today discussing one of the major issues with earmarks — they buy things nobody wants. An earmark is a spending line inserted by a member of Congress that directly funds or add funds to a project. The article uses the example of big tickets items, ships and aircraft, being funded after the Pentagon requested an end to the program. Part of this...
Government Industry Archive
March 2009
Boeing has maintained a facility in Wichita, KS for years. It has worked on commercial operations but also focused on military conversions. In 2005 Boeing sold off the commercial aspects of the operation and now it is working on a variety of U.S. and international programs modifying aircraft. The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) union and Boeing have been...
In the late Nineties the British government ordered eight CH-47 Chinooks heavy lift helicopters to support their special operation troops. Unfortunately they did not purchase the data rights to the aircraft. Normally if a government develops a system they get the data rights, but as the British were buying these aircraft developed by the U.S. they did not. This meant that the British...
The Simulator & Trainer Omnibus Contract (STOC) II recently qualified a whole swath of U.S. and European defense contractors to provide support to the U.S. Army in the areas of simulation, training, range instrumentation and support. The STOC II is managed by PEO (STRI) for the Army. The contract which has a value of over $17 billion if all aspects are executed is an Indefinite...
President Obama released a memorandum calling for a review and to propose new rules for government contracting. Reuters reports that as part of it cost-plus and no-bid contracts are eliminated from use. The actual text of the memo can be read here. It does not actually end the use of sole source contracts but states “In certain exigent circumstances, agencies may need to consider...
The Ground/Air Task Order Radar (G/ATOR) is a new ground based air search radar and related command and control equipment that the Marine Corps is purchasing to replace systems that are over twenty-five years old. The G/ATOR system is being developed by Northrop Grumman and utilizes Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar technology. The radar will have increased capabilities and...
In most industries as prices fall for an item less is produced and marketed until demand is met. When it comes to milk the Federal government props up supply. This Associated Press article describes a meeting between Governor Doyle of Wisconsin and the Secretary of Agriculture, Mr. Visack. In it the two politicians discuss how the U.S. Government will soon be sending checks to dairy farmers...
The large scale storage vendor, EMC Corp, revealed in a recent securities filing that the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating it for bribing partners to gain Federal contracts. Computerworld also reports that it is accused of providing “inaccurate or noncurrent pricing for its products”. EMC denies the charges and says that some of the complaints date back several years....
Washingtontechnology.com has released their latest list of the Top 100 Government IT Contractors. It can be found here. Many of the companies are also on their similar list for top defense contractors. 1. Lockheed Martin 2. Boeing 3. Northrop Grumman 4. Raytheon 5. SAIC 6. General Dynamics 7. KBR 8. L-3 Communications 9. CSC 10. EDS Corporation
President Obama has planned a huge expansion of Federal spending over the next two years. First the stimulus bill releases almost one trillion dollars into the economy between now and 2012. Then his Fiscal Year 2010 budget will be about four trillion dollars. A concern with all that spending will be whether it can be spent properly and ethically. In the past, as this editorial in The Boston...
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BNET Government provides daily industry trends and global news coverage with insights for managers and executives within the world wide business of government contracting. We analyze new and interesting contract awards, government policy changes, and the trends in procurements and spending. There will also be discussions of the sector with a focus on small and innovative companies and business lines. The world's governments spend billions each year on a variety of hardware and services and the site will discuss how the money is being allocated.