re: almost working software & cheap, abundant weapons

re: almost working software & cheap, abundant weapons

[JS::TERANG]

                          E L E C T R O N I C   M A I L
                   (DDN Host Address:  JS3-VAX.HANSCOM.AF.MIL)

                                        Date:      17-Jun-1993 09:16
                                        From:      Lt Gregory P. Teran 
                                        Username:  TERANG 
                                        Dept:      ESC/JST
                                        Tel No:    377-4997

TO:  _WINS%                               ( _DDN[INFO-ADA@AJPO.SEI.CMU.EDU] )


Subject: re: "almost" working software & cheap, abundant weapons

>> Given a choice between two weapons, one "almost" working but abundant
>> cheap and available now, and one working but scarce expensive and ready
>> in ten years, any soldier would rather put up with the former.  

Well, I'm sure that's true for some weapon systems, but "almost" 
working software has a tendency to turn airplanes into lawn darts.
No thanks.

>> Unfortunately the famous military-industrial complex is geared, at least
>> in peacetime, to producing weapons that are complicated expensive scarce
>> and take forever to develop...

That's both true and unfortunate.  A battalion of cavalry are less complicated,
 
less expensive, and more readily acquired than a tank.  I would rather have the
 
tank, under most circumstances.  Unless the cavalry guys had RPGs.  But that 
would make them expensive, complicated cavalry.  It seems the price of superior
 
military leverage is high, the details are tedious, and the wait is long.  I'm 
getting paid to try to fix that, but it's been real tough going so far.

Greg Teran

opinions expressed above are NOT necessarily those of Electronics Systems 
Command, AFMC, USAF, or DOD.