Letter: Cost-plus contracting is not the problem

Regarding "McCain wants to end cost-plus contracting"

I could not agree more with the two gentlemen concerning cost plus contracts. I, too, watched the McCain-Obama [presidential] debate and I cringed just about every time McCain talked.

As a retired member of the Air Force and someone who was assigned to the Air Force Flight Test Center for nearly five years and is now employed with a major defense contractor, I can tell you the issue is not with cost-plus contracts but is indeed with the government putting incomplete requirements at the beginning of the contract bidding.

I can't tell you how many times the government has changed or added requirements, usually in the form of capabilities, midstream. I guess they figure the capabilities can be developed, tested and added to the end product at no extra cost, a freebie. The government typically requests a Chevy in the beginning but will add enough extras to make it a Porsche, yet expect to pay for the cost of the Chevy.

McCain needs to do his homework and stop firing from the hip. He may be an OK senator, but I don't think he would be an effective president.

Anonymous

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