Natick was offered the Crye uniform in Multicam about 15 years ago. Because of a lot of big egos, stupid Congressionally mandated procurement rules, cold war thinking, and a garrison mentality, a committee of high ranking Officers, NCO’s, and DoD civilians conspired to kill the best combat uniform available. And truthfully, the is the sad history of most military procurement.
Now, 15 years and billions of dollars latter, we are trying to unfuck this. We still have the same shitty garrison friendly ACU maternity cut uniform (useful for hiding the belly of pregnant females and other assorted fat bodies) but now in a better pattern!
Even after they fix the pattern we will still be sandbagged with the same poorly cut and poorly designed uniform. Anyone who has worn both clearly understands the difference. Never once during ACU development did they do a side by side comparison with other available options.
Rumsfeld once said that half of the Generals in the Pentagon are a threat to national security. For my money they could cut the DoD budget in half and actually improve the force! We routinely squander billions into misguided and mismanaged programs.
We need a centralized end user driven COTS-first procurement model. Big Army needs something along the lines of DEVGRU where the best in the business come together and vett training, doctrine and procurement. Right now there are at least three or more separate commands that handle new equipment procurement.
Anyone who has a choice buys the Crye pattern uniform in Multicam - Rangers, CAC, and the AWG. The AWG has really been trying to help Army (that is their mandate) but the Army has been shockingly resistant to adopting their suggestions across the force.
Right now today they could save billions of dollars buy moving PEO Soldier under the AWG and cut out the middle men. If Natick has a good idea, they should send it to the AWG for vetting. Natick programs should have to compete head to head with COTS systems. At that point, the AWG will send the requirement to PEO Soldier for procurement and RFI.
If we did this, could have already issued the entire force two each Crye Combat and Crye Field uniforms in Multicam and we could have solved the problem and moved on to other things. Now, we will spend yet more time and money fucking around with some other shit from the Natick Good Idea Fairy.
Your tax dollars at work!
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, for the good of your Army, contact your Rep in Congress and demand the CUT the defense budget! The only reason this shit goes on is because these ass hats feel they have unlimited time and money. Our troops deserve better and so do the American people!
