At White House Request, Lockheed Martin Drops Plan to Issue Layoff Notices

[KBScobravert]

The DFW will take a MASSIVE hit with this bill. I work several of the aeronautics companies and they are telling me there will be massive layoffs. Plus you have companies like Craft that will take a huge hit. Once these jobs are cut the spending in the area will drop and less people will move here for jobs. This is a huge economic hit.

Contract companies do the things the standard forces cannot do or is not economical. $100k is a lot but it is a lot cheaper than sending our troops to do it and support them when you consider all the cost involved. The contact companies know this and charge accordingly.

One of the areas the US is lacking is training foreign troops. If I remember correctly there are only 3 groups that are trained to train foreign troops (US special forces, Oklahoma national guard, and cannot remember the third). SEALS, Rangers, and Delta have been forced into doing this when they should be doing their missions. It cost millions to train a single Special Forces soldier, if you can find a contractor to do the training at the same level with Special Forces you save a ton of money.

You hire the guy who the military already trained and allowed to EAS.

[KBScobravert]

shoot i wish ic ould be a contractor. That would be the tits!

I have been an active Marine and a Contractor. Hell I have spent the majority of my adult life doing this kind of work; 6+ years in afghanistan as a civilian and 4 years in the Marines. I love all the troops on www.ilovebagram.com that just flat out hate on contractors but take for granted how good they have it here on BAF; only to watch those same troops say "hey man, I am getting out after this deployment. Can you pass my resume on so I can come back here and work?"

I started over here FOR THE TROOPS. I left a job working less hours and making about the same as I did after being in Afg working 84hrs a week. I believed in the mission with my heart and moreso I believed in taking care of the war fighter. I still do, I just make a lot more money doing it now.

[onemeangixxer7502]

I have been an active Marine and a Contractor. Hell I have spent the majority of my adult life doing this kind of work; 6+ years in afghanistan as a civilian and 4 years in the Marines. I love all the troops on www.ilovebagram.com that just flat out hate on contractors but take for granted how good they have it here on BAF; only to watch those same troops say "hey man, I am getting out after this deployment. Can you pass my resume on so I can come back here and work?"

I started over here FOR THE TROOPS. I left a job working less hours and making about the same as I did after being in Afg working 84hrs a week. I believed in the mission with my heart and moreso I believed in taking care of the war fighter. I still do, I just make a lot more money doing it now.

Thats pretty cool. Wish I was qualified. One of those things to do just once!

[Forever_frost]

You can't beat contractors. You don't have to cover their health care, you don't have to offer benefits and don't have to offer hazard pay. The Contractor bids and if you like, you hand them money and let them do their thing. You have the military do something, you have politicians with their nose on it, brass looking over your shoulder and everything has to be PC

[KBScobravert]

You can't beat contractors. You don't have to cover their health care, you don't have to offer benefits and don't have to offer hazard pay. The Contractor bids and if you like, you hand them money and let them do their thing. You have the military do something, you have politicians with their nose on it, brass looking over your shoulder and everything has to be PC

Hazard pay is given to most contractors (LOGCAP gets it, I gets it) but in the form of a percentage of their base pay as an uplift. Hazard allowance, hardship pay and FSI (not sure what this is).

Most contracts and this is getting back on topic with your OP, are a cost plus bases with options for PEAFB (performance evaluation & awards fee board). Cost plus is determined at the onset of the contract. If the gov feels you did a good job they bump you, if you do a great job they bump you more. Most cost plus is very minimal, like cost plus 1%-4%. KBR's LOGCAP contract was a cost plus 1%. I will not say what Fluor's is.

[no4njnk]

Thank you for clearing all this up KBS.

As mentioned getting rid of the UN would save billions a year but obama is not going to do that. He likes their communist views and what they are able to get away with for him.

Remember one of the reasons we have embassies is to provide a safe haven for Americans that are in the country. They are also there for international relations and for agencies like the CIA to have a base to work out of. The countries that are falling under the islamic brotherhood are what we should look at. They have not been willing to negotiate and if they take over they will push for Sharia law type of leadership. Maybe we should just pull out and make sure we still have embassies in countries around them.

Since Reagan we have had pretty good think tanks about who to keep in power for stability. Obama ignore the gains we made and the middle east once again is in unrest. It will take somebody a lot smarter than me to know the best plan forward over there.

[8mpg]

Sssshhh, I want to hear more contractor hators. So I can ask how many of them have eaten in an Army ran chow hall in Iraq/Afghanistan vs a KBR/Fluor ran one. How many have lived on a base that didn't have contractors to take care of them but got to see how nice other bases were that did have them.

Contractors are bound to a CONTRACT with the .gov and that is how they make their money. There are government agencies who scrutinize the work to the inth degree and take money back from us when we screw something up even as simple as leaving a char spot on the outside of a pan (seen it myself). We are a customer service based industry. Try and tell me how you loved the customer service the military provides itself. lol

It is cheaper to hire me to do my job than it is to to hire my US.MIL equivelant. I have insurance and literally one other benefit; my pay. Troops may only get paid a $$ but there are several more $$$$$$$$ in their benefits and support structures.



Baghdad's US Embassy is the most expensive in the world by several fold. It is a fucking fortress. Benghazi was a shanti comparably speaking. The problem is now that we have built the Embassy in Baghdad, it would not make sense to just abandon it and loose our presence there.

I understand Baghdad is an amazing fortress but do we really need it? Would it be crazy to abandon it, yes as it would fall into the wrong hands and become a terrorist fortress. My point is that it should not have been built to begin with. We can have neighboring ally countries host our people. If people want to live in a foreign country, that is their choice and they should not rely on our government presence in another country. These dumbass reporters who go to communist Korea and get caught should not have the help of our government.

To cut spending, there has to be a balanced approach. Unfortunately, defense will have to be part of that cut. I do not agree with Obama's bullshit comment about we used to use horses or whatever but now a days though technology we have much better techniques than we did in advance. We need to find ways to make missiles, rockets, etc cheaper. Our defense has lots of waste that needs to be cleaned up. Hell, the security guy at my work was telling me he was a range officer in the Army and they wasted ammo like there was no tomorrow. Have you seen our government auctions? Brand new equipment sold for pennies on the dollar?

[Forever_frost]

Actually, I'd set charges into the structure before we left and let them have it. We rebuilt Camp Greaves up on the S Korea DMZ when I was there and handed it over to the Koreans the year after it was finished

As far as wasting ammo, that does happen. But then again, you know what also happens? We run around in the woods training, yelling "bang, bang"

[ceyko]

To cut spending, there has to be a balanced approach. Unfortunately, defense will have to be part of that cut.

I mentioned this earlier, but I've seen no other real talks about cutting elsewhere.

I also realize that xyz only makes up 1% or .25% or 2.32% - however, a half point there, quarter there full point somewhere else adds up to real money - in places it is most certainly being wasted as well.

I concur, DOD/etc need to tighten it up a little. Hard to do that when we still have people deployed overseas - in true hostile environments. TRUST ME when I say that the people who will suffer the most will be the ones getting shot at on a daily basis.

[Forever_frost]

If you reduced every budget in the federal system by 1%, you'd get somewhere

[The King]

If you reduced every budget in the federal system by 1%, you'd get somewhere

Good idea in my opinion. Reduce every federal budget item by 1% annually for the next ten years. So simple, just like a flat tax rate, that it will never be reality.