From: Doc Scheffler (roughdoc@earthlink.net)
Date: Thu Jun 19 2003 - 15:26:31 PDT
I've been reading the comments both pro and con and indifferent.
Here's my 2 cents worth.
The Gator costs the Army $12,000 a piece. You can buy new MUTTS (growlers)
for less than $7K and that's retail.
I had a Gator in Afghanistan. It was good for getting around the compound -
unless I had lots of stuff, or heavy stuff, or needed to go faster than 15
MPH. Of course it's a diesel, so that makes it popular.
Off the shelf purchases sound like a nice idea. In practice, the new
government credit card for purchases has been a disaster, with abuse heaped
upon abuse.
One of the reasons why it takes a little longer to field something in the
military is that we don't just field the vehicle. We field the entire
support structure to include repair parts, manuals, special repair tools,
etc.
I can't tell you how many times units who buy lots of off the shelf stuff
(like SOF) cried and moaned because they couldn't get stuff fixed when it
broke. Heck, the dumps in Afghanistan are full of stuff that we threw away
because it couldn't get fixed.
While there are abuses in the system, I'd rather pay $35K for something that
lasts 20 years, than have to spend $10K every year for the same thing.
Doc
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