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Need to understand key purchasing criteria from a military's point of view

Old 11-04-2008, 05:08 PM
  #1  
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Default Need to understand key purchasing criteria from a military's point of view

Anyone who worked for any military and knows about the military's key purchasing criteria when purchasing aircrafts, in particular, the below 30-seater turboprops?

Some factors I thought would be relevant are:
  1. new vs refurbished
  2. price
  3. operating cost
  4. technical capability
  5. comfort
  6. speed
  7. safety
  8. after sales service
  9. brand name
Which of those factors would be most important? Are there other criteria that I did not mention?
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Old 11-04-2008, 06:57 PM
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Absolutely none of these!!!!

1. Which district can they be built in and who in Congress is the most influential and can actually get it built.

2. How much kickback money the above said politician will receive from the military contractors.

-Fatty
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Old 11-04-2008, 07:55 PM
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How about we assume that all contractors are hit by the recession and no longer provide 'happy money'?
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Old 11-05-2008, 04:00 AM
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That will never happen. Kickbacks and politics are all that matter in my experience.
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Old 11-05-2008, 06:53 AM
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Military acquisitions is extremely complex...those personnel assigned to do it must have graduate-level education in the process. You probably need to hire a consultant (ex-procurement official) and spend big bucks to get your answers. Although bribing your conressional rep might work too

The military might go with lowest bid which meets the stated requirements for simple things like toilet paper.

For complex systems like aircraft (even an off-the-shelf civilian airplane) they will usually do a complex analysis andd weigh many factors...

Cost
- Acquisition
- Annual recurrent
- Lifetime
- Support Personnel

Value
- Performance (meets the specs?)
- Maintanability
- Reliability
- Bonus performance: extra credit if you exceed certain performance requirements. This may be allowed for certain criteria but not others. Ex. they may allow extra credit for extra MGTOW or range, but not for extra cruise speed. All depends on their perceived need.

Risk
- Does the vendor have experience?
- Is the vendor adequately capitalized?
- Is the vendor capable of ramping up production for a large order?
- Is there new technology which may cause delays or cost overruns?
- Is the vendor's track record for delivering on promises good? General Atomics just lost a large UAV contract because they had a poor track record for timely development and production, even though their product was a good one.

Bottom, line the military will look for best value...balancing cost, performance, and risk. The devil is in the details, and you will need professional help for that. I suspect that you are going to have trouble winning whatever you are bidding on, might want to consider saving your time, effort, and money and just drop it now.
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