Posted: 11/17/2012 7:02:40 PM EDT
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Let's say a high-ranking officer is in command during an emergency situation. He needs to acquire some product that is only manufactured by one company, and which the military does not have a current supply of. He needs a quantity of this product in a very short time frame.
How would he go about getting it? Without getting into any secret squirrel stuff, what is protocol for that? |
Seriously, every unit should have at least one government purchase card. Usually the supply sergeant and S4 has them.
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My daughter is home on leave from the Air force . She's a Contracting Officer so she should know the answer. depends on how much it costs, and what the actual item is. if its less than $1500 per item and its NOT in/a/part of a weapon system, get the funding from the squadron/base and fire up that GPC. <––GPC holder for damn near every unit I was assigned. It is the one job that no one volunteers for. |
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Let's say a high-ranking officer is in command during an emergency situation. He needs to acquire some product that is only manufactured by one company, and which the military does not have a current supply of. He needs a quantity of this product in a very short time frame. How would he go about getting it? Without getting into any secret squirrel stuff, what is protocol for that? Take it in the name of the US government, leaving a note behind with an IOU 
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She said something like " If its a urgent compelling need " you don't need government document ion just GPC card. That's up to 3000.00 and It could be extended to 250000.00 . All paperwork still needs to be filed afterward .
She rattled off more than that but I'm too lazy to type it all out. |
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I really appreciate all the answers. This is research for a fictional story that needs to be accurate.
But what if the items are a new weapons system that hasn't been through the procurement process, but some LTC or higher decides he needs it RFN (!), and it's a few million bucks a pop? Throw in the assumption that he has the manufacturer's CEO on speed-dial. |
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Quoted: A weapon system that costs a few millions dollars per unit? thats a different story than a thousand batteries or some such.I really appreciate all the answers. This is research for a fictional story that needs to be accurate. But what if the items are a new weapons system that hasn't been through the procurement process, but some LTC or higher decides he needs it RFN (!), and it's a few million bucks a pop? Throw in the assumption that he has the manufacturer's CEO on speed-dial. |
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A weapon system that costs a few millions dollars per unit? thats a different story than a thousand batteries or some such.
I really appreciate all the answers. This is research for a fictional story that needs to be accurate. But what if the items are a new weapons system that hasn't been through the procurement process, but some LTC or higher decides he needs it RFN (!), and it's a few million bucks a pop? Throw in the assumption that he has the manufacturer's CEO on speed-dial. +1 When I posted my answer about "commandeering" I was talking about stuff like batteries, or fuel, or something like that. What you are describing - a new weapons system that HASN'T been through the procurement/contracting profess - is not something that an officer on their own initiative could suddenly decide to acquire for their unit. |
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A weapon system that costs a few millions dollars per unit? thats a different story than a thousand batteries or some such.
I really appreciate all the answers. This is research for a fictional story that needs to be accurate. But what if the items are a new weapons system that hasn't been through the procurement process, but some LTC or higher decides he needs it RFN (!), and it's a few million bucks a pop? Throw in the assumption that he has the manufacturer's CEO on speed-dial. +1 When I posted my answer about "commandeering" I was talking about stuff like batteries, or fuel, or something like that. What you are describing - a new weapons system that HASN'T been through the procurement/contracting profess - is not something that an officer on their own initiative could suddenly decide to acquire for their unit. +1 yeah, weapons systems are a COMPLETELY different ball game, there is so much shit that you have to go through to get one approved, because if any of the current weapons contractors make anything that can fit the need, then you will use that, if there isn't one that fits then it has to go through contract procurement, testing,bidding, blah blah blah. BTW this is in reference to Big AF, other services may be different in the exact process, but I am guessing they will be pretty close. Now this is the traditional way of getting it done, there are other ways of getting it done in a semi-legal way. For instance, say manufacturer A makes widget Z for the USAF, but they also make Widget X that has not been through the approval process, if someone high enough, say base commander wants it, if he can convince manufacturer A to "donate" some widget X's to the base for "testing" then that can fasttrack the approval process like lightning if it turns out it fills the need fantastically. This is a risky move though because the company will never get paid for the "donated" ones, if it turns out it isn't a good fit, here is your stuff back, but it generally is in very used condition. In 11 years I have only seen this once, and it was when I was assigned to AFSOC. |