Security

Cash Crunch for Pentagon Bomb Squad

"The organization tasked with defeating roadside bombs is temporarily short on cash," Stars & Stripes is reporting. The Joint IED Defeat Organization has less than $50 million available for new projects, retired Gen. Montgomery Meigs, who heads the group, said. He said the temporary funding shortfall won’t stop troops downrange from getting training they need, […]

"The organization tasked with defeating roadside bombs is temporarily short on cash," Stars & Stripes is reporting.

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The Joint IED Defeat Organization has less than $50 million available for new projects, retired Gen. Montgomery Meigs, who heads the group, said.

He said the temporary funding shortfall won’t stop troops downrange from getting training they need, but “we’re not funding the programs that we could...”

*Officials were promised another $2.4 billion in the midyear supplemental budget, but lawmakers and President Bush clashed over that measure after Congress tied the money to a time line for withdrawing from Iraq.
*

According to funding reports filed with Congress, only about $60 million of the organization’s $1.9 billion in funds this year has actually been spent. But Meigs said nearly all the rest has been committed to the services, which then award contracts. Meigs said that leaves the group with a cash flow problem.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that mean that JIEDDO has done a fairly lousy job at managing its money? Isn't this the governmental equivalent of maxing out your credit cards, and hoping that Mom and Dad will bail you out? I know it's an all-too-common practice at the Pentagon. But still...

Anyway, the last year has seen a major shift in the organization's strategy, Army Times
notes. In the beginning, JIEDDO (and its predecessors) focused on research that could stop individual bombs. "But in April 2006, the
Defense Science Board reported that the
Pentagon’s counter-IED efforts had become too focused on more technical, defensive and adaptive efforts, rather than attacking the networks underpinning the IED attacks..."

*Meigs, who reports to Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, said his boss told him to "stop buying platforms" [like bomb-spotting drones]. *

Meigs took that to heart. Since then, “defeat the device” efforts have leveled off while “attack the network” efforts are up markedly.

ALSO:

* IED Fight = "McNamara Line"?
* Blimps, Bots, Beams Enlisted for IED Fight
* Bomb-Fighters Defend Progress
* Pentagon Bomb Squad Under Fire
* Pentagon Bomb Squad a Dud?