Sponsored by Blinkist: Get a 7-day free trial and 25% off Blinkist Annual Premium by clicking here: www.blinkist.com/perun Have been a bit ill recently so I'll say this is relatively few words. I know this video is a bit of a personal indulgence voted for by my Patrons, and I appreciated a chance to make it. I never thought people would watch PPTs on defence economics....but even moreso never thought anyone would watch anything on procurement issues. Will see how this one goes before I decide if the series should be extended to special interests, competition and other elements, but just know I had great fun making this.
If you had fun making it, we are going to love it. Personally, I love your videos on corruption and how different nations tackle their security needs. Keep up the great work, Perun. You make my Sundays.
I can’t believe after all this time the international community still hasn’t spoken out against Emutopia’s constant aggression and their blatant disregard for the rule of law.
You mean Kiwiland’s deliberate expansion by being being in the same ocean and hemisphere. Everyone knows that Kiwiland is culturally just Emuland with an accent and really wants to play Emuland Rules Football, whilst at the same time being full of Far-South supporters. Emuland is just intervening to support all Emu speakers who have persecuted by the Kiwilanders insistance on using only one vowel sound for everything - although any LSM (Little Sunburnt Men) you see on the ground are locals campaigning for freedom and not Emulanders in disguise. 🧌🧌🧌🧌 [Apologies for this tongue in cheek reply to a tongue in cheek post - I know it’s parodying very serious matters. I’m going for a little lie down now.]
Emutopia has succeeded with several "soft power" initiatives in inculcating a greater degree of tolerance and even goodwill in much of the Free World. E.g., it has executed its "kangaroo diplomacy" for several generations now, in which everyone plays nice in return for access to this odious regional power's charismatic megafauna (the 'roos, emus, wombats, platypuses, and so on) for their zoos. Emutopia also deserves its success as a tourist destination and pop-culture producer (silly songs like "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" and Nevil Shute's WWII & WWIII novels were just two early opening salvos), and its "sports-washing" takes care of the rest. It's a tall order for Kiwiland to muster a robust international alliance against the hybrid warring by its revanchist neighbor when many Americans' first impressions of Emutopia are mired in harmless fluff like the "Crocodile Dundee" franchise, the pop stylings of Kylie Minogue, and the thrilling rivalry between their Olympic swim teams.
Beware the cyber capabilities of Kiwiland. We know they only at Rugby due to cyber interference - they are brazenly open about preceding every match by *haker* activity 😉🙃
As a former builder of motorcycle projects and general mechanic, the most expensive phrase ever was "As long as we're doing (this), we might as well........"
But for cars, "while we're here" is a crucial attitude towards keeping maintenance costs down. If you're paying a mechanic $1000 in labour to replace a $50 part, and believe me, a LOT of repairs look like that - they might as well replace any other parts in that area that have predictable, limited lifespans while they're there.
Did you hear? Peskov said the goal to "demilitarise" Ukraine has "largely been achieved", since they are using more and more Western weapons. I was immediately reminded of Perun: "...the idea of demilitarising your opponent by face-tanking their ammunition reserves with your infantry and armoured vehicles isn't exactly a 4D chess move." 😅
A sooper-genius move with no economic downsides, since all it took was to collapse demand for Russian defense products and support, and force a longtime customer to switch to competitors.
@@omikhlephononas if he's ever been a reliable source. His puppeteer has himself stated that Peskov often "spews incredible BS". Which speaks volumes considering he's still holding his position.
“There aren’t many troops out there with the financial capacity to bring their own fighter jet” - ah, if only millennials would stop wasting all their money on avocado toast!
There are kit built jet-powered planes that are somewhat affordable, as such things go. Maybe strapping some MANPADS or glide bombs onto them might work. I've been saying for over a year that instead of F-16s or Mig-29s for air defense against drones, maybe some Cessnas with MANPADS strapped to them might do a lot to protect Kyiv from Iranian and Russian drones.
@@jakeaurod As fun as resurrecting Bazooka Charlie in an anti-air role would be, Cessnas lack the speed and MANPADS the range to form a particularly effective cruise missile screen.
As someone who worked for the government in RDT&E for 35+ years, this was painful to listen to because it was so damn accurate. I've personally experienced just about every negative aspect of procurement discussed here. What's truly sad is that the engineers and contracting officers often raise concerns during the process citing "been there, done that, got the t-shirt" experience just to be told to sit down and shut up because the budget/schedule is fixed and can't be changed - until the whole thing slowly collapses
and ofc the management that refused to listen will cover @$$ with passive voice descriptions of failure, and if pushed further, will scapegoat those same engineers for the failure to bypass the impossible roadblocks
Same thing happens in the construction industry as well. You can literally go up to the managers before even a brick has been laid and say “this part isn’t going to work because of reasons a,b,f,m and x” and they’ll say “this is how it’s been designed and improved”, then once everything is built the cost gets blown out because now you have to rectify problems a,b,f,m and x. Very rarely you’ll have someone who can see more than 2 metres in front of them who lean on the experience of those working with them and those people are worth their weight in gold.
In IT - haha, that last sentence from those higher ups who have f all idea and then the backtrack and thus the ‘We told you so you dumbarse’ and it cost FAR more as a result. Or the ‘contractor’ goes ‘thanks but no thanks’ and not pick up the ‘procurement’ as a result. The ‘contractor’ being your IT staff leaving because the project demands are too much and thus leaves for less stressful work for the same or more pay. The classic example is outsourcing your IT to India. They (the higher ups) don’t understand that IT is just as much about culture and communication and if the people don’t know the working culture, you get animosity from the staff and lower worker morale as a result. Not to mention, all the actually good IT workers from India have already moved to the West for far higher pay leaving you with the B grade to run your IT. The higher ups realise this and backtrack but since all your own IT staff with all the internal knowledge has left long ago, you’re now worse off and lost a lot of money re-onshoring your IT again
@@sniperfi4532 I draw electrical plans. I send them out to electricians for comments. They often have very good ones. I take their advice and apply it in future designs. The buildings get their CO in reasonable time. But my specialty is routine compared to defense. They are often trying to break new ground. That's when you get glitches. But yeah, sometimes the wrong people are in charge.
@@sniperfi4532 Aye and when the person or persons move into house they find a string of problems and after the year for sorting any building snags is up then other problems arise. Architect isn't working with builder dosent know what customers need etc Council's building houses are awfull at this end result mouldy , ineffective fittings etc.
One of my professors while I was a Midshipman at the US Naval Academy was the lead structural engineer for the JSF program before he called it quits and became a prof. He told me the first 150 airframes or so of the F-35 were "more hand built than a Ferrari". There was a time during the early stages of the JSF production phase where Lockheed Martin's engineers were on the factory floor shaving off titanium from its structural bars (They were I-beams with holes in them). An engineer with shave off some titanium, measure the circle (to make sure it was still within structural integrity), and shave a little off again. Apparently Lockheed Martin announced that anyone who saved 1lb off the JSF would be awarded a 10,000$ bonus. According to my professor, Congress played a major role in the delay of the JSF. As the most expensive weapons program in history, every member of Congress wanted in on the money faucet. The fighter, its performance nor schedule did not matter - only that it added 5,000 new jobs to their Congressional district. He told me there was a point where the JSF was being considered for a secondary Navy carrier cargo delivery mission, if it meant producing a certain component that added jobs to an unnamed Congressman's district.
That sounds consistent with the JSF. I’m on the “F-35 is the best fighter jet so far” team, but well… the program that developed the aircraft was as much politics as getting a working jet out of it, and was such a fun experience that everyone involved swore not to repeat that experience again.
@@oj8868 It's the modern USA production model: Expensive as hell, a pain in the ass to make work, but worth every penny at the sharp end...and it works.
@@MM22966 It’s just as much the case that there is a whole industry involved in rolling all the R&D costs into the initial production run to make things sound more expensive than they are. Since the internet is forever, it would probably not take much effort to find stories about ZOMG! The F-35 costs $135M each!!!
Finding congressmen who's constituents have companies that can build components (talking bits and bobs) for your project is the politics/salesmanship of these major projects. Between two comparable bids, the bid with more widespread sourcing and jobs will likely win. It's certainly a large factor. When 25 congressmen pop up in support vs 10. Of course, much of this can and could be done in one place, a la Tesla giga-mega-tetra-factories.
My sympathies, I work in a government archive and worked with our IT-procurement to buy a new case management system for a few thousand employees with enough safety features to work with sensitive data. It took years and managed to hit a point where everyone but me and one other had been exchanged. Worked out in the end, but I never want to do it again.
Oh as a german i feel the duty to watch this video as a whole. Hope you encluded some of the beautiful things the german Bundeswehr and the Ministry of Defence did.
There's a lot of competition there might not be time for everyone. The shit the British "Ajax" programme has pulled could give any German weapons programme a run for their money.
When spotting the bloody obvious, and trying to convey it to the relevant people becomes a religion, as a missionary for the Church of Common Sense. Where the righteous whistleblowers are either neglected or burnt at the stake. And if their proper idea, by some miracle, get through to actually make a positive difference, they are belittled, forgotten and cheated out of their just reward.
I am not even defense nerd, I don't even care about military or weapons... and I still find his videos interesting. I've listened to every single one of them. It's just generally interesting.
I grew up in a small town whose only real major source of industry was defence shipbuilding, so the part about delays having enormous knock-on effects really hit home here for me. It is not an exaggeration to say that some people began to plan their entire lives around the anticipation of 30 years of work on a new generation of ships, even before they'd left school. You can imagine how a town like that can be devastated by even a small cut-back on the size of the ship class.
That's really interesting. In older times, you might have a whole village whose entire job is producing something like blocks for a castle. I guess the more things change the more they stay the same.
Greetings from Canada where our military procurement history is a wonderful example of indecision and ineptitude: Coast guard Ice breakers, sea kings, submarines, planes and APCs.
Politicians don't want to spend money on the military anymore because liberals don't like the military, and conservatives want to cut spending (and cut taxes). That is the real crux of the issue.
I once sat in on a meeting where the army wanted to buy cheap lower power radios and approached Motorola to buy off-the-shelf The army then put forward their changes to this off the shelf buy with some functional changes, better robustness, repairability, etc. Then dangled the carrot of their need for 100,000 units to get Motorola to develop this no-longer-off-the-shelf radio. The Motorola rep informed them that 100,000 units was a morning's production run and for that quantity they probably wouldn't even change the software.
Shout out from the fellow colonies, us Canadians have the same response. A household making 6 figures and yet home ownership is basically a fanciful theoretical…
I am laughing and crying at the same time knowing my generation(myself included) is permanently gonna be a persons base income who got assigned a better IRL spawn point then me for the sheer audacity of me not wanting to die of exposure.
Just seconds into this, you've insulted me by reminding me how old I am. I've actually served under the last remains of the "bring your own kit" rules. I was in the Norwegian homeguard for a good number of years, and we were required to keep our own underwear, including warm longs for the winter. And yes, it gets cold some times. It probably was a good idea back in the startup days, when many Norwegians actually worked outdoors, but not in a platoon of bankers, lawyers and administrators in the early nineties. With temperatures creeping towards -20 on a reserve excercise we had to adjust planned activities because our soldiers didn't have suitable socks... Anyway, it's been sorted since then..
@@TheSubpremeState I'd rather train at -20 than fight at -20 without training at -20, and I'd rather fight at -20 without training than let the orcs have their way unopposed. Though I get your point, even if it's percectly doable. It just takes a bit of training, discipline, and a culture for alert leadership on all levels. Oh. And suitable underwear...
In Estonian home guard a lot of us improved upon the given kit: compass, a fitting winter jacket, etc. It has probably gotten better now. And some folks played airsoft on the side so they decided to get fancier stuff on their own accord anyway. Although some of it was kind of luxury. An old Swedish flask of 0,5L from the army stores or a modern 1L one from shops. Or a camelbak altogether.. Which doesn't go with the large rucksack
@@TheSubpremeState I'm sure that Perun covered this in an earlier presentation. As I recall -2 is wet and ugly, -10 is cold and dry, and much better to both train and fight in, but it'd be better to find his presentation as it gives much more detail (obviously).
@@botondhetyey159 I'm on the customer side on this one - how it usually goes is "hey internal project manager, I think we need a software that allows our users to do "job". "Well, that's nice, but our software can't work with that. NO YOURE NOT ALLOWED TO SPEAK TO A SOFTWARE ENGINEER. Now go write a 300-page incomprehensible document, whilst you're still waiting and guessing what (other group) will deliver. Oh, and they're not doing any progress, but I expect you to keep typing pages anyway. Feature bloat? Never heard of it" Yugh. I just want to let software engineers/sales support engineers do what they do best - talk to me and extract from me what I need. I'm not good at setting software requirements, if I were I'd be a software engineer......
Talking with a fellow engineer who used to work for a military sub-contractor who made aerospace equipment for the US Military I think it is safe to say there is a lot of room for economy of scale to improve costs. He told me the contractor they sold to used to only order things in quantity ONE at a time. So every time an order came in they had to set up the machining tools for ONE custom part, when they could have made two or three or even a hundred for only slightly more cost. 🤦
@@gryphon0468 I don't know unfortunately. I'm not in defense related procurement. Those who are - uniformed officers, civilian APS and contractors - don't tend to discuss their work with those outside their bubble, like myself. I haven't worked with any ex-Army or DoD people for about 5 years.
@@gryphon0468 By now if someone works in military procurement in a Western country and under 50 than probably at least heard of him. Not many produce UA-cam videos on the topic and our overlords at Google ensures that videos in your interest will be served to you.
Everything in this video is wrong because it is all based on a false premise that one should be designing weapons systems when the country is not at war and not in imminent danger of being in war. Instead, countries should be laser focused on heavy industry, heavy manufacturing and the economic health of the nation. 8 decades of empire have decimated US heavy industry, manufacturing and the economic power of the US. US industry would be lucky to provide uniforms, mess kits and bicycles for troops to ride.
Like the video "how lies destroy armies" the video is relevant beyond just military. This applies to procurement in general. Coming from the world of software development, I can say this is spot on.
A good quote to remember is "The perfect is the enemy of the good" Something that is usable when you need it is hundreds of times better than a hypotheticaly perfect something that shows up late/never
As a research engineer in aerospace I really loved many things in this presentation. Two highlights: 1. Sooo many make the mistake what they think is a small change to an existing platform will be easy, fast and inexpensive. The "small" change is almost always seeking to allow for new capability. Sometimes these changes can be made on the platform. Sometimes what they are asking for really needs a new platform. Eplaining this to those asking for the change can be difficult. 2. This presentation talks a lot about uncertainty when developing new tech. I am glad this is recognized. After all, we are generating something THAT DOES NOT EXIST. However, please note leadership will never pull the trigger on any program without in depth ROI analysis.
Customer "yes, we'd like to upgrade to the MkII of this thing." Engineers "great, that requires additional cooling but the current cooling system is maxed out so we'll need to upgrade that too. Also, the structure around the mkii unit and the cooling is maxed out so that will need to be upgraded. We need additional power for this, but you guessed it, the margin is too small and that will have to be upgraded too with additional structure. It looks like we'll need half a dozen additional cables and some new fancy cables which require unique runs with spacing. So, we'll have to redesign and rerun all of those cable ways to make space. Your $15k more MkII unit is going to cost you $3mn with all of the roll down upgrades and eng/design labor." Of course the customer tells you to cut corners that can't be cut and when it doesn't work because of said cut corners they need to pay more so that you can build it the way you suggested in the first place. I'm sorry if this triggered any other system engineers PTSD. 😂
I don't work in the field, but being from south Australia I still remember this all playing out in public when the first Collins Class submarines were built. It was a public controversy that despite it being a brand new vehicle built for the first time that the engines initially had (from memory) some sort of cavitation issue from fluid dynamics. All the mainstream media jumped on it as this massive disaster but as far as I'm aware it was fixed soon after and they were a very advanced and successful vehicle. But mention Collins Class and all anyone remembers is the negative press.
And because the procurement involves something that has never been used before, when the user (Not the people who helped develop the requirements, but the warfighters who will use the platform when the shooting starts) get to use it item for the first time, they will demand a bunch of changes for it to be usable. Even if the changes are "just" in the interface, they usually drive systemic changes to the software architecture. And that will be EXPENSIVE! (think about effort required to change the guts of a several million lines of code)
@@aaronleverton4221 It's always hard to go from an idea to a working, deployed system and as the saying goes: "The difference between theory and practice is always bigger in practice than in theory."
No chance......Perun doesn't link his materail to critical race theory, transgenderism and diversity - and as we all know, military strength is enshrined in diversity. There is no point having the appropriate equipment; effective training and competent sodiers if they aren't reflective of all sections of oppressed groups within society. For example, enemy troops may well destroy your army, if it is just well armed and well trained, but they will run away for sure if you can confront them with layered diverse formations, who are conversant with modern social commentary and prepared to spend other people's money to achieve an inclusive society.
As a non-military government employee, this is the first Perun video where I had extensive relative experience. And yeah, the info definitely checks out
I'm currently reading a book called 'How Big Things Get Done', which examines why so many projects, from home revations to the Opera House go so catastrophically over budget and over time. It's a great book, and Perun identifies many of the same issues in this video.
As a product designer, I found a lot of the concepts surprisingly relevant. I also loved some of the quotes, particularly this gem: "The final 10% of capability accounts for 1/3 of the cost and 2/3 of the problems". One to keep in mind when designing features.
If you're not feeling great, then make sure you put yourself first. It's OK to delay an upload or two. You're genuine insight and interest is what differentiates these PowerPoints from the run of the mill school presentation. A happy healthy Perun is the most important thing.
@@johanmetreus1268Take it from an investing guy - only healthy, well-cared-for body enables the best of the best long-term results. 🏆❤ We are a sophisticated & important machine - make sure we budget proper resources towards maintenance. Guys; don't go all Russia on maintenance. ^^ 🎉❤
At 31:35, for those wondering, what Perun is talking about is yet again Indian Procurement, however it was with planes and not subs. You see, back in the long ago days of 2012, Dassault had an issue: It was trying to not go broke and struggling to do so. India meanwhile wanted a bunch of new fighter jets. Dassault makes Fighter Jets, so they offer up a bid. Since they are barely staying afloat and are desperate for any sort of income, they offer up an absolutely sweetheart deal of 126 Rafales, Spare Parts Included, for only 20 billion(150 mil per plane...and their spare parts), with the first 16 to be delivered by 2015. The problem however is that Indian Procurement has two major enemies: Indian Nationalists and High Corruption in India. Indian Nationalists proceeded to demand 100 of these Rafales had to be built in India by HAL and that if anything at all went wrong with production, Dassault would be at fault. HAL for the unaware is a state owned company infamous for really bad quality control, with the corruption being a major part of why. Dassault did the completely reasonable thing and told the Indian government to fuck off. India DID eventually get an order for Rafales. India bought 36 planes for 8 bil at 222 mil per unit in 2016 with none of the stupid requirements for Dassault to be at fault for HAL being HAL....you know, when the original deal had them with 16 already by 2015.
And still the MOD hasn't learned anything from that shitshow of a deal and added a similar liability clause in the P75I deal where the company is expected to take responsibility for the boats which will be made by the shipyards identified by the government. If anything goes wrong the OEM will be held responsible and will have to pay the penalty.(apparently it was added after scorpene subamarine documents leak).
That's why companies don't like investing in India, the bureaucrats wanted none of the responsibilities/liabilities and had no idea of how an investment decision is made
I’ve worked for a manufacturer who made mil-spec components. That mfgr produced consumer grade and mil-spec components on the same line and the same parts just went into different boxes and mil-spec cost 5X more. A huge difference in the product was the extensive additional QC and performance testing of the components required by the mil-spec contract.
There's a lot less difference than one might think between actual manufacturing cost per hour and administrative or non value added costs like QC and certifications. I've seen plenty of simple component costs double or triple on follow up requirements after actual manufacturing inputs. On the other side, ridiculous material specifications and traceability requirements can add significant costs as well.
The truth is I am often willing to pay for better QC. I can find plenty of products on-line that are made in the same province, town, and almost certainly the same factory in China. They look almost identical, schematics when available are the same, etc. One product will have a terrible profile of customer reviews, the other much better ratios of 5 stars to 1 star. Comments usually reveal quality control issues, e.g., threads don’t line up, parts missing, etc. I will almost always buy the more expensive version with the better profile in the hopes of getting better QC
@@ColdHawk appropriate QC is definitely a baseline consideration. My comment refers to the difference between appropriate verification VS do we really need to verify every dimension on every part including all the related GD&T references etc etc. Measuring clearance features in every part is a waste of time for example. There's also the issue of tolerances, which can be different for identical parts of so called different quality. All this stuff needs to be rationalized against the actual function of the part but that seems to be going to the wayside as the divide between manufacturing and engineering grows.
One factor not stressed enough is how incredibly complex these procurement projects are and how risky they can be. Sometimes budgets over-runs happen not because someone said "wouldn't it be nice if", but because a feature turned up to be much more complex than anticipated, or because there was a misunderstanding on what a feature actually means. There's also, unfortunately, a lot of *known* dishonesty. I.e. everyone involved knows it is easier to find a way to blame feature creep in order to get extra budget, after a contract has been obtained, than it is to obtain the contract with a realistic price. Not that I would know anything about it, I'm just guessing, obviously.
@@PerunAU Like when the Swedish railroad was deregulated.... Tågkompaniet was running the railroad traffic Kiruna - Stockholm at an annual cost of 120 MSEK, which was 15 MSEK lower than the cost budgeted for when it was government operated by SJ. Amazingly enough, the trains runs as scheduled for three years, but now with actual service on them. Time for a new contract in 2002. In comes Connex with a bid for 60M annually. In spite of the protests over the rather obvious price dump, the governmental agency claimed they had to accept the lowest bid. Less than a year after being awarded the contract, Connex demands negotiations as they are running at a loss. Three years later, Tågkompaniet gets a settlement after having sued Rikstrafiken (the governmental agency) for their losses caused by wrongfully awarding Connex the contract. Swedish Radio has a short summary called "Tågkompaniet utan nattrafiken nästa år" and" "Tågkompaniet fick rätt i uppgörelse" for those interested in digging deeper.
@@johanmetreus1268The Germans probably still beat you in this as we decided to privatize the rail in the 90s so they made it a publicly traded company but after public backlash didn't sell the stocks. So now we have a Company in charge of our rail that is owned by the state giving us the worst of both worlds. High ticket prices, bad service, yearly strikes, massive delays and totally inefficient.
@@johanmetreus1268 Some of the blame for that would fall on the bidding process itself and those who designed it. If cost is given too large a weighting or there are no procedures in place to more critically appraise or outright reject a lowball bid then the whole process is wide open to these kind of dishonest practices. A little-known bit of history is how the rules governing a contract award (with some corruption on top) ended up causing the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986. The loss of the Shuttle was due to catastrophic failure of the structure of the External Tank due to impingement of hot gases escaping from one of the solid rocket boosters. These were built by Thiokol and were manufactured in segments which were transported to Cape Canaveral where they were fixed together using "field joints" to create a complete booster. The booster casing was 1/2 inch thick steel but the field joints had gaps that flexed and could potentially leak hot gas so they were sealed with special putty and other materials, together with a pair of rubber o-rings and it was the failure of these due to the cold weather before the launch that led to the loss of Challenger. The obvious question is why would you have vulnerable field joints that relied on putty and o-rings, rather than have a monolithic steel case with no field joints? The reason is that Thiokol were based in Utah and the boosters were transported to Florida by rail and a complete booster was much too big to fit through tunnels. When the contract was put out for tender, three other companies submitted bids including Aerojet who wanted to build the boosters at their facility on the Florida coast just a few miles from the Cape. These were to be transported by barge which could carry a fully assembled booster so Aerojet's design had a monolithic steel case with no field joints and no risk of a Challenger-style failure. Theirs was also the cheapest bid, significantly undercutting Thiokol. NASA's own expert panel recommended awarding the contract to Aerojet but were overruled by NASA administrator James Fletcher who awarded the contract to Thiokol. This was protested and Congress instructed the General Accounting Office to review the bids - they could find no reason to select Thiokol over Aerojet, but since the bid process allowed Fletcher the final say (despite his personal connections with Utah and companies based in the state) they concluded that the award wasn't improper. Fletcher was either incompetent, or more likely he was corrupt but lack of proper oversight allowed the bid process itself to be fundamentally flawed and meant that individuals with serious conflicts of interest were able to take part in the process and affect its outcome.
It is a habitual feature of building contracts that the builder underbids and expects to make the contract profitable by requiring expensive variations to meet unforeseen (but not unforeseeable) difficulties.
As a retired business analyst I've experienced so many of the same issues in the commercial world, luckily only careers have been wounded & no-one actually dies as a result of the decisions taken. Another great video, really enjoying your work.
As a business owner, I'd be highly interested in listening about the civilian sector too and maybe some business advice. I was able to take out a lot of general advice from this video alone. Can't state how much I appreciate your content. It's a blessing and amazing thing to listen to while working.
This brought back a memory that caused me to chuckle. Early in my engineering career, my company was making simulators for tank training. We got power control handles directly from the manufacturer that was putting them on the tanks. In acceptance testing our handles failed the tolerance specs listed in the test. We ordered multiple sets of production handles and almost all failed to tolerances. It was amazingly difficult to get the government to allow us the same tolerance as on the actual tanks they were getting. At least it was a good learning experience for our spec writers. 😮
A few years ago I started a thread on a Binkov video about "which military has the best bang for buck". *Russia* was the answer posted by a few - on the grounds that they had neer peer capability for a smaller budget..... I really hope those replies are still there!
Of course, Russian arms industry is (practically) government run. There cannot be a market for military arms, aince the government is the only buyer (exports need political permission too). So best is to keep it all inhouse. Western arms are so very expensive because fraudsters play fake "markets" where no market is possible.
@avpguy11 I consider it a sparring session, then I move on to partisan American and British politics for the main event. Australian politics has gotten boring since we stopped knifing sitting PM'S, so I need something to keep my mind sharp.
After Perun, anything with a gimmick or clickbaits or goes out of bound of their ability gets ignored or blocked (lazerpig), it's so much easier to spot something wrong now. I have blocked Military History Visualised due to how freaking wrong every modern take has been. Your speciality is WW2 history, wtf are you doing?! Binkov is pretty much pure speculation. Red effect is very pro Russian, like, if you have evidence, that great, but you don't. It has lead to excellent, professional, qualified commentators. If you haven't already, look up Anders Puck Nielson. A channel called Silicon Curtain has good interviews covering A to Z of the war.
@@JB-pu8ik Do have a look at Willy OAM, former Aussie soldier turned journalist/commentator. A more critical view of the open information pumped out, trying to get to the objective truth regardless of bias. No, corruption isn't gone in Ukraine so supply chains for the individual units are still a lot about who you know and and trust. No, the Russians aren't using forbidden weapons, they just use the legal ones when they attack civilians... which IS illegal.
Normally I skip over the commercials, but I listened to this one and found it useful. The difference is that you addressed how the product was valuable to you with an excellent example. Thanks for the effort. I hope the sponsor understands the added value you bring to the ad.
Ass he mentions somewhere, this is applicable in more industries that just military procurement. I work in the pharmaceutical industries and just getting across the differences between requirements and specifications (and why customer should require and supplier should specify) can be soooo enervating...
I was in the Army for over a decade and spent a lot of that time working in procurement. Not the big stuff but the tiny stuff, organic to individual units. I loved it. Best part of my job was watching the things I procured being put to use. So yeah.. procurement is one of my favourite subjects ❤
I worked for a defence company called Hawker de havilland/Boeing Australia 1984 to 2014 they stopped apprenticeships in 1992 thus non trades made up most of personal from the 2000s onwards and when Boeing took over preceded to reduce the workforce by 100s personal year by year. Tradesmen were retrenched first due to higher wages. Thus no production capability of a complete aircraft for the ADF, as the ADF bought off the shelf or the government created small made up limited skilled company's built from scratch just to assemble the aircraft from parts made from overseas. Now there no capability to design and or manufacture a complete aircraft ! Gone are the days of a total manufacturing capability from scratch like we did in the past with the Canberra bomber, Avon Sabre, Mirage IIIO, F/A-18A Hornet, Blackhawks, PC-9, Macchi 326H, Nomad etc.
Please do a video on Canadian defence procurement; it’s a multi decade dumpster fire of waste, lost opportunities and entire weapon platforms simply disappearing due to retirement without replacement
I never thought i would look forward to a weekly hour long power point presentation online, but you manage to knock it out of the park every time. Keep up the good work.
As a British person I can't wait for that video on our procurement process. I mean we did decide it would be a great idea to stick a 183mm gun on a centurion Hull & then just encase that gun in a 14mm plated box with a door in the back.
Please do look after yourself Perun! I am sure we all would understand and endorse it if you ever need to take a few weeks off for self care :) You're a good bloke, and we don't want you getting run down.
I am reminded of a thing that happened long ago at Apple when they divided proposed OS features onto Blue, Pink, and Red note cards. Now, it's hard to say that Apple really did a great job executing on upgrading MacOS from System 3 to MacOS 9.X. The late 80's and early 90's were a rocky time for the company. But however poorly they executed, they had a great idea that day. It was all about "Wouldn't it be great if..." The engineers had tons of great ideas for how to improve the OS of the late 80's Macintosh. They knew it was terrible and hobbled in many ways. All of the ideas they were proposing were basically good ideas. But some of them were basically analogous to "turn a mortar into a mech." So they got everybody to propose all of their great ideas and classify them onto three categories of note cards. Blue cards were stuff that could be bolted onto the existing software pretty easily. Pink cards were ideas that would require pretty significant re-engineering but could be done in the reasonable medium term. And red cards got the ideas that were good, but would basically require throwing out most of the existing software and building incompatible stuff from scratch. They didn't throw away the pink and red cards. They started R&D projects to work on the long term stuff. They just didn't let the "blue" project get completely bogged down by the space cadet stuff. "Pink" ultimately got torn apart by all sorts of internal "nice to have" arguments. But because it was walled off from Blue, Blue was able to keep pushing out modestly useful upgrades to the janky old software and Apple stayed in business with a working operating system, if only barely. The military needs blue development that is walled off from pink and red development. Looking at stuff like Zumwalt and LCS, the US Navy procurement has clearly been only Pink and Red, with no Blue. It keeps trying to do Blue (like buying FREMMs) but because Pink isn't walled off, we will only buy Super America Turbo Bonus FREMM Enterprise Edition Pro that cost way more that the European equivalent. Yes, there are reasons for our Frigates to be like that, but in order to satisfy One More Thing syndrome, we are gonna pay way more for similar capabilities, lose the ability to order more or get spares from European yards and stocks, etc. Would could have literally just ordered off the shelf FREMM from Europe while we designed the Constellation class SuperFREMM as a Pink project. And we seem to have no Red project for a surface ship doing R&D for the "next Zumwalt" which we will need eventually.
This has been beyond insightful. Not only do I feel like I have a firmer understanding of defense economics in general, I also feel like I have a firmer understanding of how to hold departments accountable for decisions made with good intentions. Despite it feeling like a job or a (really) weird hobby, it's great to have you around.
It's not the topic, Perun, it's your presentation. Your videos are interesting and easy to watch because of how they were written, presented and narrated, but because the topics themselves are captivating.
It's not even the presentation, though sardonic humor is indeed my cup of tea. It's the combination of (1) topicality, (2) expertise, and above all (3) good faith. That combination is hard to find in media saturated with hot takes. When we find something like Perun, even in power point format, a certain segment of our content-glutted yet information-starved populace grabs on tight. (See also: Robert Miles on AI safety, On the Media.)
I feel like for small purchases, just give the troops some money directly. The German Paratroopers didn't have proper winter jackets for years because how awful the Heerenwaffenamt procurement was. At that point just tell the troops to buy a jacket with Flecktarn Camo and hand them money. But in this case they had to use their salary to buy clothes for work, absolutely insane
US did that after a fashin in WW2. They tallied the most commonly purchased items and contracted them in batch at public expanse. The most famous example is probably the aviator sunglasses.
having been on the receiving end of many a poorly planned IT project, this is a video i'm going to keep in my back pocket to show to the newbies to help them understand why requirements matter. I can't wait to see more on this topic
Yes!!!! ... and the sad thing is that any book on project management or systems methodology tells you how to do it right, and then there are all those real life examples of why projects fail. Time for a beer.
not military in the slightest but i do find the processes of the defence industry (and the military industrial complex) absolutely fascinating. thanks Perun for yet another concise and clear presentation
"Meanwhile for the members of the millenial generation onwards: Homebuilding is basically a process by which the landlords construct the properties you rent from them." xD
@@tinedel yeah, I feel a bit guilty having been able to buy. I have a millennial friend who lives in basically a largish walk-in closet with a 3/4 bath and a hotel-style kitchenette in a not the worst but certainly not remotely the best neighborhood and pays rent that's about what the mortgage on my house is. :(
@@j.f.fisher5318 don't be. Some are more lucky or skilled with money and in general decision making. I myself would probably be able to buy if I've done some better decision making. Though of course sheer number of people renting is astounding
@@j.f.fisher5318Its always funny how we make the longer term better investment have so much higher a startup cost, regardless of where you're living, because that's how it's been everywhere for decades. And with overall costs increasing everywhere, the only salvation many percieve is a crash to force prices to drop or suppliers to leave. Maybe we'll all learn to eat the bugs and become self sufficient again. Question then is will we reject the landlords when they return? Probably not.
@@tinedel Don't know where you're from, but here in the UK property prices have got silly over the past fifteen / twenty years. I've just payed my mortgage off after 21 years, a couple of years ago the house next door, basically identical, went for four times what I paid. Sometimes it's not skill or financial acumen, it's simply unaffordable.
Nice mention by Richard Irons in his most recent analysis of the Ukraine/ Russo war . He considers your analysis & regular podcasts of this war as the best, most thoughtful & well researched anywhere, on the net! Thank you, Perun, for your great work.
I would rather have a world without wars*, but if we are gonna have them, Perun is a good guide. * if you look at the trends over 100s of years it is going down... so that's good
@@massgunner4152 He'd still exist but he wouldn't be Perun. But some say it's self correcting so maybe the war needed to happen so Perun can exist. Some physicists belive shit like paradox autocorrect universes.
I used to work for a manufacturer that explicitly had policy allowances for local customs in contracting. Things like bribes where those are the local custom. Seems obvious that they would do it, I was just surprised they had a policy that admitted it.
Thanks for the great video. As a member of the CAF for over 30 years, I've seen too many blunders(aka shit-shows). From the LSVW that was supposed to be tactical but the brakes could be hear a mile away, the Seaking replacement, fixed-wing SAR airplane, the coastal mine sweepers that are missing half their stern, the CF-18 replacement....the list goes on. These issues are so harmful to our soldiers' luves as well as their pride and moral. When are the politicians going to learn the lessons that you talk about every week? Thank you from Beavertopia😋
Really sorry to learn you have not been feeling well - I hope it's not serious. As always, you produce professional, incisive and well-resourced perspectives that are very valuable. And you do it with humour! Total respect.
Back in the 2010's I worked for a firm that supplied dress and safety Rx eyeglasses to the firm developing the next Marine One for the US President. Had a frank conversation with one of their engineers. Apparently that program was in development hell due to capability creep. All the added features increased weight to the point that it lowered the range/performance envelope below what the contract specified.
But how can we allow the president go anywhere unless he has his own Jacuzzi Hot Tub, Black Jack table and it's own economic zone where sex workers are legalised.
As a Kiwilander I feel this death spiral is happening right now in both Kiwiland and Emutopia. It’s a sad state of affairs whilst the People’s Republic of Pandas and Ramentopia are rapidly expanding their military at an astonishing rate, with the populations in both countries incredibly apathetic to the concept of national defence like what’s going on in Europe. I think a root and branch reform of both nations’ approach to national defence is required. The procurement systems are broken and bureaucratic. OEMs are drowning in money especially in the US. Manufacturing bases in both countries are fucked. Workforces are severely lacking in skill. It is a catastrophe waiting to happen.
@Ben's Random Shows Yes, but because of the emphasis shift from land defense to air/naval/missile defense, there's a greater focus on systems types that Australia can't produce natively. The idea, though, is that they will gain some of these capabilities like constructing nuclear submarines as part of the process of acquiring American designs.
though infamously, the Have Blue prototype for the F-117 stealth fighter was on time and on if not under budget because it was so secret that the Pentagon bureaucracy couldn't screw it up. Not saying stuff always works that way. Secret programs are frequently a breeding ground for corruption.
Not really. That's what the GAO is for. They have "cleared personnel" for these things. Just look at their report on the F-35 for an example. Honestly why have a problem with "Gold Plated" stuff? The James Webb Space Telescope has gold plated mirrors, and look at all the great pictures we are getting. That was delayed and way over budget. But seeing the results makes it a bargin.
@@jerrywatson1958 Whee! Conflating figurative gold plating with literal gold plating is a fun start, and allows us to move right on past "Would anyone with the cash have agreed to pay for the project if the actual cost and timeline were presented up front?"
@@jerrywatson1958 The Government Accountability Office does review Department of Defense spending, but their oversight abilities are more limited compared to other agencies. Classification limits the number of government officials and congressmen from reviewing the spending, and it eliminates journalists from looking into it like one could do for spending at the Department of Education.
I've recommended your videos to many people over the last year, since, I think, you're one of the most objective creators, who makes videos on such complicated topics, yet remains relatively condensed in terms of time. We have plenty of good independent media right now on Russian dissident's side, but, still, it's crippled by emotional involvement a lot of the time, when it comes to military-related topics. Спасибо, Perun.
I've worked at a few companies that have "adopted" Agile or Scrum. Not a one of them made meaningful changes to the management structure. Daily 45 minute standup, yay...
Hearing this video make me glad to have retired and put behind me developing systems for the Army, and the cluster of dealing with the sheer ingnorance, incompetence and greed that was Military procurement. I rate the worst to have to deal with were the military "experts" we were sent to try to better understand the users needs. Their understanding of development of new equipment generally consisted of "what we already got, but smaller/lighter".
Having studied Systems Engineering at ADFA as a civi this video should be a must watch! Awesome, well explained and engaging! Much more contemporary than most of the lecture slides (most older Aus projects).
One huge advantage of retiring a platform early and getting a new platform is that it gives the defence minister/secretary a bright shiny toy to pose next to for photo opportunities.
During the 1990s after the breakup of the USSR developed of improved artillery systems were suspended due to the mistaken belief that large scale industrial warfare was a thing of the past. This wasn't the first or last time that the American intelligence services were wrong.
@@JB-pu8ik Hey no one managed to cancel the Space Launch System so it does work. Not efficiently, cheaply or well but it works!! Only 10 years late an 200% over budget and cost per launch only increased 5X. God bless cost plus contracts You messed up? Here's more money and more time! Huh, you messed up again? Well here's some more money and time.
The US loves the blingy thingies, but we also seem to love our old dogs. B-52, Iowa-class, E2 Hawkeyes, Intruders, LA-class subs, F-4s, F-14, A-10. All had long service lives, The Iowas had low mileage, but we kept them around for a long time. Hell, none were scrapped, either, except for the two hulls which were never completed.
the finest and funniest hour plus discussion of Procurement I've ever heard. As my much smarter brother says in development meetings: "Good, Fast, Cheap. Pick 2. Thanks Perun
I briefly worked on the USN A-12 program, and this brought back some chilling memories of how that awful program went...or rather DIDN'T went. Great job!
@36:18 "Hey wouldn't it be great if we just..." Whenever I hear "just" or "only" in the context of any kind of work or project, I am immediately on guard.
The most recent news is that australia is only going to be able to build 3 or 5 (yeah right 5 lol) of the subs right? The 5 i mean 3 others being built elsewhere (read bought off the shelf >Mess up procurement >Blame frogs >??? >Profit
@@pougetguillaume4632 And how are we going to sustain them? I've found a total of 1 nuclear engineering degree at an Australian university. We don't have the nuclear industry to support them. More work to go overseas.
I don't really understand the criticisms of the MOA-S. It actually went into production and has a kickass acronym. That's like 3/4 of the battle right there.
Procurement has actually become one of my favorite topics because of your videos. You are highly knowledgeable in the field and the interest shines through in the videos.
Another amazing powerpoint. Watched every one since all bling no basics and enjoyed them all. Amazing ability to explain such complex and simultaneously mundane topics in a clear, concise and entertaining way. No idea how you do it, but keep up the great work friend!
Haven't watched it yet but I'm hoping you'll mention the absolute omnishambles that is my country's Ajax programme. Billions of pounds for IFVs that barely work and give their crews tinnitus in 90 minutes.
@Perun how do you think ajax will turn out I don't think they'll cancel it at this point so I feel like it'll most likely end up as a half decent ifv/scout tank that went massively overbudget and never shakes that reputation, I suppose it could end up as a learning experience for the MOD but knowing them and most over nations procurement departments I doubt it.
@@Pyyig my bet would be it pushes on to completion as a pretty high tech AFV family. Enough time and money can often brute force through dev issues in the end. But it may carry some lessons (or reminders) for future programs.
@@PerunAU well I suppose that well known failures are more likely to cause change then ones that fly under the radar and due to the amount of outrage ajax has caused it could lead to real change, when it comes to the vehicle itself I think there could be some issues with mission creep unless more boxers (particularly the ones with turrets) are procured and the javelin seems like quite an expensive atgm to strap on to an ifv but other than that it should hopefully be able to do its job well.
I think it's easier for everyone to agree and say yes when bombs are raining on top of you or the enemy is kicking down your office door, so buying stuff during wartime has a different mentality than peacetime.
Ive been watching for months and months now and each episode is just fantastic. Im developing a first person civ-sim game and the nuts and bolts of power are incredibly interesting to me. I imagine much of what i see in these videos will eventually be represented in my game. Such an invaluable resource, thank you very much for your work.
@Tayday42 Is there a way I can keep up with the development of that game? First person civ-sim is a really neat idea, and anything based on a power structure informed by Perun would make for a really cool set of mechanics. I know nothing about coding, but I would buy a beta version to help you out and give you feedback.
Scope/Mission creep is so endemic and so destructive in part because on some level, engineers will only stay on task when held at proverbial gunpoint. They're like IT techs in that they're apparently allergic to the KISS principle.
It's not the engineers who do this, it's marketing & sales. They're so eager to add "value" they rarely even bother to ask the engineers if something is feasible before promising it to the customer.
@@techmage89 I'm not saying that marketing and sales don't sometimes sell unachievable things but having worked in large scale engineering and construction for many years, those few engineers who can keep to a scope and "not over-engineer something because it is more fun/interesting for them" need to be preserved, cherished and supported as they are as rare as hen's teeth. In my experience, most engineers love to build things and really love to build new cool things where they learn stuff as they go. This tendency costs both the contractor and the client time and money and adds risk. It is most often "change" that is the thing that harms what could be successful projects where all the specification, contracting and procurement stages have been done well. "Uncontrolled change" destroys projects.
@@michaeljohnston6811 Over engineering is usually the result of unclear, conflicting, or just inadvisable requirements. If the engineer asks "Did you want it to do X or Y?" and they get the response "Yes" from the customer, their management will often tell them "Just do both to be safe". Then they have to design some overcomplicated mess, when all the customer really wanted was something that could do *either* X or Y.
Never expected to laugh so hard at anything about procurement 😂 It’s almost miracle we can provide some decent support to 🇺🇦!! Thanks Perun for your awesome work ✨ Please allow yourself to take some time off. I’m becoming to feel like we’re too dependent on your goodness…Wish you a speedy recovery and many blessings 🍀🤞💖🙏
Want to know why people watch these? Very simple. "Getting something perfectly once is the only true requirement for success". You probably heard something like that many times. This channel puts things together perfectly. Sometimes it may seem silly and almost like explaining it to a child. Because that's actually how it goes for children - a few simple words go back to every part of life. This channel is much better then anything else at putting things together in just the right way to get something amazing out of something simple
Sponsored by Blinkist: Get a 7-day free trial and 25% off Blinkist Annual Premium by clicking here: www.blinkist.com/perun
Have been a bit ill recently so I'll say this is relatively few words. I know this video is a bit of a personal indulgence voted for by my Patrons, and I appreciated a chance to make it. I never thought people would watch PPTs on defence economics....but even moreso never thought anyone would watch anything on procurement issues. Will see how this one goes before I decide if the series should be extended to special interests, competition and other elements, but just know I had great fun making this.
i love you perun, will you marry me?
Thanks perun sending ❤ to you from Jamaica 🇯🇲
I come in ✌ weee
If you had fun making it, we are going to love it. Personally, I love your videos on corruption and how different nations tackle their security needs. Keep up the great work, Perun. You make my Sundays.
Developed nation which is worst at procurement -- Canada
Hi Perun. Can you do a video about war profiteering?
Governments may struggle with procurement, but we have procured another perun video on schedule and on budget.
he chose to lead by example
and the quality is always phenomenal!
Damn we are good
Victory! Yeah!
And with price parity equal to that of full fledge Discovery documentaries.
As a software engineer, the "wouldn't it be great if ..." people are the bane of my existence.
Just have customer do the testing bro.... the business major said it was fine.
Ask them to quantify the $$ value of that change.
As a floor layer I can agree people are the worse :)
Any engineer or builder has that experience.
Yeah, I think that goes for all types of engineers lol.
I can’t believe after all this time the international community still hasn’t spoken out against Emutopia’s constant aggression and their blatant disregard for the rule of law.
Emus once won a war against returned soldiers armed with machine guns. Now no one is foolhardy enough to speak out against a whole nation of them.
You mean Kiwiland’s deliberate expansion by being being in the same ocean and hemisphere. Everyone knows that Kiwiland is culturally just Emuland with an accent and really wants to play Emuland Rules Football, whilst at the same time being full of Far-South supporters. Emuland is just intervening to support all Emu speakers who have persecuted by the Kiwilanders insistance on using only one vowel sound for everything - although any LSM (Little Sunburnt Men) you see on the ground are locals campaigning for freedom and not Emulanders in disguise. 🧌🧌🧌🧌 [Apologies for this tongue in cheek reply to a tongue in cheek post - I know it’s parodying very serious matters. I’m going for a little lie down now.]
@@radarspotter4032 stay strong we have to ensure the Kiwi-lies are never again position to threaten the proud history and culture of our Emu Empire.
Emutopia has succeeded with several "soft power" initiatives in inculcating a greater degree of tolerance and even goodwill in much of the Free World. E.g., it has executed its "kangaroo diplomacy" for several generations now, in which everyone plays nice in return for access to this odious regional power's charismatic megafauna (the 'roos, emus, wombats, platypuses, and so on) for their zoos. Emutopia also deserves its success as a tourist destination and pop-culture producer (silly songs like "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" and Nevil Shute's WWII & WWIII novels were just two early opening salvos), and its "sports-washing" takes care of the rest. It's a tall order for Kiwiland to muster a robust international alliance against the hybrid warring by its revanchist neighbor when many Americans' first impressions of Emutopia are mired in harmless fluff like the "Crocodile Dundee" franchise, the pop stylings of Kylie Minogue, and the thrilling rivalry between their Olympic swim teams.
Beware the cyber capabilities of Kiwiland. We know they only at Rugby due to cyber interference - they are brazenly open about preceding every match by *haker* activity 😉🙃
It is a testament to just how good Perun is that 60,000-ish people have viewed his PowerPoint on military procurement in around 3 hours.
Would be more if we wouldn't have to wait until UA-cam finished the auto-subtitles first.
150k views @ 9 hours (when I started watching)
175k views @ 10 hours (when finished)
Funniest Power Points on YT!
These are so goood. Thank you!
Before perun military discourse online was much worse
As a former builder of motorcycle projects and general mechanic, the most expensive phrase ever was "As long as we're doing (this), we might as well........"
“While we’re here” left my motorcycle unridable for two months longer than it needed to
But for cars, "while we're here" is a crucial attitude towards keeping maintenance costs down.
If you're paying a mechanic $1000 in labour to replace a $50 part, and believe me, a LOT of repairs look like that - they might as well replace any other parts in that area that have predictable, limited lifespans while they're there.
Did you hear? Peskov said the goal to "demilitarise" Ukraine has "largely been achieved", since they are using more and more Western weapons. I was immediately reminded of Perun: "...the idea of demilitarising your opponent by face-tanking their ammunition reserves with your infantry and armoured vehicles isn't exactly a 4D chess move." 😅
I want that quote on a t-shirt! 😂❤
Priceless! 😁😅🤣😂
Peskov at this point is just a talkibg-head and principally nothing close to a fairly reasonable judgement woukd leave his mouth
A sooper-genius move with no economic downsides, since all it took was to collapse demand for Russian defense products and support, and force a longtime customer to switch to competitors.
@@omikhlephononas if he's ever been a reliable source.
His puppeteer has himself stated that Peskov often "spews incredible BS". Which speaks volumes considering he's still holding his position.
“There aren’t many troops out there with the financial capacity to bring their own fighter jet” - ah, if only millennials would stop wasting all their money on avocado toast!
I look forward to the follow-up video "How Avocados Destroy Armies".
They buy avocado toast because they are depressed as hell
There are kit built jet-powered planes that are somewhat affordable, as such things go. Maybe strapping some MANPADS or glide bombs onto them might work. I've been saying for over a year that instead of F-16s or Mig-29s for air defense against drones, maybe some Cessnas with MANPADS strapped to them might do a lot to protect Kyiv from Iranian and Russian drones.
@@tristanrouse6150 Avocados are delicious as hell.
@@jakeaurod As fun as resurrecting Bazooka Charlie in an anti-air role would be, Cessnas lack the speed and MANPADS the range to form a particularly effective cruise missile screen.
As someone who worked for the government in RDT&E for 35+ years, this was painful to listen to because it was so damn accurate. I've personally experienced just about every negative aspect of procurement discussed here. What's truly sad is that the engineers and contracting officers often raise concerns during the process citing "been there, done that, got the t-shirt" experience just to be told to sit down and shut up because the budget/schedule is fixed and can't be changed - until the whole thing slowly collapses
and ofc the management that refused to listen will cover @$$ with passive voice descriptions of failure, and if pushed further, will scapegoat those same engineers for the failure to bypass the impossible roadblocks
Same thing happens in the construction industry as well. You can literally go up to the managers before even a brick has been laid and say “this part isn’t going to work because of reasons a,b,f,m and x” and they’ll say “this is how it’s been designed and improved”, then once everything is built the cost gets blown out because now you have to rectify problems a,b,f,m and x.
Very rarely you’ll have someone who can see more than 2 metres in front of them who lean on the experience of those working with them and those people are worth their weight in gold.
In IT - haha, that last sentence from those higher ups who have f all idea and then the backtrack and thus the ‘We told you so you dumbarse’ and it cost FAR more as a result.
Or the ‘contractor’ goes ‘thanks but no thanks’ and not pick up the ‘procurement’ as a result. The ‘contractor’ being your IT staff leaving because the project demands are too much and thus leaves for less stressful work for the same or more pay.
The classic example is outsourcing your IT to India. They (the higher ups) don’t understand that IT is just as much about culture and communication and if the people don’t know the working culture, you get animosity from the staff and lower worker morale as a result. Not to mention, all the actually good IT workers from India have already moved to the West for far higher pay leaving you with the B grade to run your IT.
The higher ups realise this and backtrack but since all your own IT staff with all the internal knowledge has left long ago, you’re now worse off and lost a lot of money re-onshoring your IT again
@@sniperfi4532 I draw electrical plans. I send them out to electricians for comments. They often have very good ones. I take their advice and apply it in future designs. The buildings get their CO in reasonable time. But my specialty is routine compared to defense. They are often trying to break new ground. That's when you get glitches. But yeah, sometimes the wrong people are in charge.
@@sniperfi4532 Aye and when the person or persons move into house they find a string of problems and after the year for sorting any building snags is up then other problems arise. Architect isn't working with builder dosent know what customers need etc Council's building houses are awfull at this end result mouldy , ineffective fittings etc.
One of my professors while I was a Midshipman at the US Naval Academy was the lead structural engineer for the JSF program before he called it quits and became a prof. He told me the first 150 airframes or so of the F-35 were "more hand built than a Ferrari". There was a time during the early stages of the JSF production phase where Lockheed Martin's engineers were on the factory floor shaving off titanium from its structural bars (They were I-beams with holes in them). An engineer with shave off some titanium, measure the circle (to make sure it was still within structural integrity), and shave a little off again. Apparently Lockheed Martin announced that anyone who saved 1lb off the JSF would be awarded a 10,000$ bonus. According to my professor, Congress played a major role in the delay of the JSF. As the most expensive weapons program in history, every member of Congress wanted in on the money faucet. The fighter, its performance nor schedule did not matter - only that it added 5,000 new jobs to their Congressional district. He told me there was a point where the JSF was being considered for a secondary Navy carrier cargo delivery mission, if it meant producing a certain component that added jobs to an unnamed Congressman's district.
That sounds consistent with the JSF.
I’m on the “F-35 is the best fighter jet so far” team, but well… the program that developed the aircraft was as much politics as getting a working jet out of it, and was such a fun experience that everyone involved swore not to repeat that experience again.
However, they did get one hell of an aircraft out of it.
@@oj8868 It's the modern USA production model: Expensive as hell, a pain in the ass to make work, but worth every penny at the sharp end...and it works.
@@MM22966 It’s just as much the case that there is a whole industry involved in rolling all the R&D costs into the initial production run to make things sound more expensive than they are. Since the internet is forever, it would probably not take much effort to find stories about ZOMG! The F-35 costs $135M each!!!
Finding congressmen who's constituents have companies that can build components (talking bits and bobs) for your project is the politics/salesmanship of these major projects. Between two comparable bids, the bid with more widespread sourcing and jobs will likely win. It's certainly a large factor. When 25 congressmen pop up in support vs 10. Of course, much of this can and could be done in one place, a la Tesla giga-mega-tetra-factories.
I work in IT procurement. These are hard lessons to learn. It takes a lot of skill and effort to steer projects around the pitfalls.
Examples sir? Curious
My sympathies, I work in a government archive and worked with our IT-procurement to buy a new case management system for a few thousand employees with enough safety features to work with sensitive data. It took years and managed to hit a point where everyone but me and one other had been exchanged. Worked out in the end, but I never want to do it again.
Oh as a german i feel the duty to watch this video as a whole. Hope you encluded some of the beautiful things the german Bundeswehr and the Ministry of Defence did.
I bet we have a big part in this video.
There's a lot of competition there might not be time for everyone. The shit the British "Ajax" programme has pulled could give any German weapons programme a run for their money.
German here too. I'm too scared to watch.
@@oneofmanyjames-es1643 even the German Frensh cooperation programms?
I mostly give modern Germany a pass since it already got its own video
Perun videos are like church for defense nerds, and I am all here for these weekly sermons. We gather weekly to hear wise words
Bro stop being so accurate
When spotting the bloody obvious, and trying to convey it to the relevant people becomes a religion, as a missionary for the Church of Common Sense.
Where the righteous whistleblowers are either neglected or burnt at the stake. And if their proper idea, by some miracle, get through to actually make a positive difference, they are belittled, forgotten and cheated out of their just reward.
I am not even defense nerd, I don't even care about military or weapons... and I still find his videos interesting. I've listened to every single one of them. It's just generally interesting.
That's a great way of putting it! Also I listen to it on Sundays, so that works out too! "Church for Atheists", almost... 😀
@josephstolen-election5949 Posting the same comment over and over only make us laugh at you even more. Cope harder Ivan.
Two and a half minutes in, and I'm wondering how ANY significant procurement project is ever successful.
@@JB-pu8ik And sometimes, your nation's at war and needs a weapon RFN.
Necessity, mother of invention and stuff...
They never are, but since the bar is so low, only doing an epic fail will be compared to other procurement projects favorably.
@@ipadistaso basically, you grade on a curve 😉
Money lots and lots of money.
Mostly in spite of themselves…
I grew up in a small town whose only real major source of industry was defence shipbuilding, so the part about delays having enormous knock-on effects really hit home here for me. It is not an exaggeration to say that some people began to plan their entire lives around the anticipation of 30 years of work on a new generation of ships, even before they'd left school. You can imagine how a town like that can be devastated by even a small cut-back on the size of the ship class.
That's really interesting.
In older times, you might have a whole village whose entire job is producing something like blocks for a castle.
I guess the more things change the more they stay the same.
Greetings from Canada where our military procurement history is a wonderful example of indecision and ineptitude: Coast guard Ice breakers, sea kings, submarines, planes and APCs.
The frigate saga is just sad.... another white elephant catastrophe that will yet again handicap the defense capacity to own stuff.
Politicians don't want to spend money on the military anymore because liberals don't like the military, and conservatives want to cut spending (and cut taxes). That is the real crux of the issue.
Nothing will ever top the shovel with a hole in it.
RCAF is going to love the Aussies’ sloppy seconds in the case of the legacy hornets.
@@mr.stealyomemes1393 Canada had their own production line for A/B/C/D Hornets. I’d have to check if they do CF-18E/F
I once sat in on a meeting where the army wanted to buy cheap lower power radios and approached Motorola to buy off-the-shelf The army then put forward their changes to this off the shelf buy with some functional changes, better robustness, repairability, etc. Then dangled the carrot of their need for 100,000 units to get Motorola to develop this no-longer-off-the-shelf radio.
The Motorola rep informed them that 100,000 units was a morning's production run and for that quantity they probably wouldn't even change the software.
Lol, I would love to see that Army guy's face
@@zurielsss yeah. He did go in brim full of confidence and came out a bit stunned.
awesome, what career path led there if you don't mind my asking?
The deadpan breakdown of homebuilding for anyone under 35-40 is some classic aussie snark. Quality content. Got an audible laugh out of me
Having just read a piece on the ABC about the top end of homeowners being the most-subsidised, it brought a laugh of recognition.
Shout out from the fellow colonies, us Canadians have the same response.
A household making 6 figures and yet home ownership is basically a fanciful theoretical…
Maybe if we convince the Emutopian government that it's a submarine, they'll accidentally fund some housing for millennials
I am laughing and crying at the same time knowing my generation(myself included) is permanently gonna be a persons base income who got assigned a better IRL spawn point then me for the sheer audacity of me not wanting to die of exposure.
@@FlyingVolvo Don't fret, we'll be able to get a nice house once the grandkids are in college.
Just seconds into this, you've insulted me by reminding me how old I am.
I've actually served under the last remains of the "bring your own kit" rules. I was in the Norwegian homeguard for a good number of years, and we were required to keep our own underwear, including warm longs for the winter. And yes, it gets cold some times. It probably was a good idea back in the startup days, when many Norwegians actually worked outdoors, but not in a platoon of bankers, lawyers and administrators in the early nineties. With temperatures creeping towards -20 on a reserve excercise we had to adjust planned activities because our soldiers didn't have suitable socks...
Anyway, it's been sorted since then..
I'd quit at -2. I'd rather be a tunnel rat in Vietnam than train at minus 20
@@TheSubpremeState I'd rather train at -20 than fight at -20 without training at -20, and I'd rather fight at -20 without training than let the orcs have their way unopposed.
Though I get your point, even if it's percectly doable. It just takes a bit of training, discipline, and a culture for alert leadership on all levels.
Oh. And suitable underwear...
“it gets cold sometimes” is a more than fair (under)statement when talking about Norway. 😂❤
In Estonian home guard a lot of us improved upon the given kit: compass, a fitting winter jacket, etc. It has probably gotten better now. And some folks played airsoft on the side so they decided to get fancier stuff on their own accord anyway.
Although some of it was kind of luxury. An old Swedish flask of 0,5L from the army stores or a modern 1L one from shops. Or a camelbak altogether.. Which doesn't go with the large rucksack
@@TheSubpremeState I'm sure that Perun covered this in an earlier presentation. As I recall -2 is wet and ugly, -10 is cold and dry, and much better to both train and fight in, but it'd be better to find his presentation as it gives much more detail (obviously).
"I want a tank with a big gun that does tank stuff good" seems like a perfectly reasonable description of requirements to me lol
Good shoot big boom but enemy boom become plink
"Yeah, but wouldn't it be great if..." 🤔
I'm a software dev, I'd probably commit unspoken attrocities, if it meant all our clients would communicate what they want this clearly.
@@botondhetyey159 I'm on the customer side on this one - how it usually goes is "hey internal project manager, I think we need a software that allows our users to do "job".
"Well, that's nice, but our software can't work with that. NO YOURE NOT ALLOWED TO SPEAK TO A SOFTWARE ENGINEER. Now go write a 300-page incomprehensible document, whilst you're still waiting and guessing what (other group) will deliver. Oh, and they're not doing any progress, but I expect you to keep typing pages anyway. Feature bloat? Never heard of it"
Yugh. I just want to let software engineers/sales support engineers do what they do best - talk to me and extract from me what I need. I'm not good at setting software requirements, if I were I'd be a software engineer......
But, do you want a fast tank with a big gun that does tank stuff good or a really hard to kill tank with a big gun that does tank stuff good?
Talking with a fellow engineer who used to work for a military sub-contractor who made aerospace equipment for the US Military I think it is safe to say there is a lot of room for economy of scale to improve costs. He told me the contractor they sold to used to only order things in quantity ONE at a time. So every time an order came in they had to set up the machining tools for ONE custom part, when they could have made two or three or even a hundred for only slightly more cost. 🤦
As a grants funding manager for the Australian Government, procurement is indeed one of my favourite topics. Just saying.
How widely are Peruns videos shared in your space?
@@gryphon0468 I don't know unfortunately. I'm not in defense related procurement. Those who are - uniformed officers, civilian APS and contractors - don't tend to discuss their work with those outside their bubble, like myself. I haven't worked with any ex-Army or DoD people for about 5 years.
I smell an IRL collaborative effort in the works getting Master P a little more of what he deserves🎉
@@gryphon0468 By now if someone works in military procurement in a Western country and under 50 than probably at least heard of him. Not many produce UA-cam videos on the topic and our overlords at Google ensures that videos in your interest will be served to you.
Everything in this video is wrong because it is all based on a false premise that one should be designing weapons systems when the country is not at war and not in imminent danger of being in war.
Instead, countries should be laser focused on heavy industry, heavy manufacturing and the economic health of the nation.
8 decades of empire have decimated US heavy industry, manufacturing and the economic power of the US. US industry would be lucky to provide uniforms, mess kits and bicycles for troops to ride.
It's Father's Day, the one time a year I can legally ignore everyone in my family and listen to perun uninterrupted
😁👍
lol
Have the kids join in on the listening
Like the video "how lies destroy armies" the video is relevant beyond just military. This applies to procurement in general. Coming from the world of software development, I can say this is spot on.
A good quote to remember is "The perfect is the enemy of the good"
Something that is usable when you need it is hundreds of times better than a hypotheticaly perfect something that shows up late/never
"The perfect is the enemy of the good."
"The all-or-nothing crowd are going to guarantee that we all get nothing."
As Confucius said "Better a diamond with a flaw, than a pebble without."
As a research engineer in aerospace I really loved many things in this presentation. Two highlights:
1. Sooo many make the mistake what they think is a small change to an existing platform will be easy, fast and inexpensive. The "small" change is almost always seeking to allow for new capability. Sometimes these changes can be made on the platform. Sometimes what they are asking for really needs a new platform. Eplaining this to those asking for the change can be difficult.
2. This presentation talks a lot about uncertainty when developing new tech. I am glad this is recognized. After all, we are generating something THAT DOES NOT EXIST. However, please note leadership will never pull the trigger on any program without in depth ROI analysis.
Customer "yes, we'd like to upgrade to the MkII of this thing."
Engineers "great, that requires additional cooling but the current cooling system is maxed out so we'll need to upgrade that too. Also, the structure around the mkii unit and the cooling is maxed out so that will need to be upgraded. We need additional power for this, but you guessed it, the margin is too small and that will have to be upgraded too with additional structure. It looks like we'll need half a dozen additional cables and some new fancy cables which require unique runs with spacing. So, we'll have to redesign and rerun all of those cable ways to make space. Your $15k more MkII unit is going to cost you $3mn with all of the roll down upgrades and eng/design labor."
Of course the customer tells you to cut corners that can't be cut and when it doesn't work because of said cut corners they need to pay more so that you can build it the way you suggested in the first place.
I'm sorry if this triggered any other system engineers PTSD. 😂
I don't work in the field, but being from south Australia I still remember this all playing out in public when the first Collins Class submarines were built.
It was a public controversy that despite it being a brand new vehicle built for the first time that the engines initially had (from memory) some sort of cavitation issue from fluid dynamics.
All the mainstream media jumped on it as this massive disaster but as far as I'm aware it was fixed soon after and they were a very advanced and successful vehicle. But mention Collins Class and all anyone remembers is the negative press.
And because the procurement involves something that has never been used before, when the user (Not the people who helped develop the requirements, but the warfighters who will use the platform when the shooting starts) get to use it item for the first time, they will demand a bunch of changes for it to be usable. Even if the changes are "just" in the interface, they usually drive systemic changes to the software architecture. And that will be EXPENSIVE! (think about effort required to change the guts of a several million lines of code)
From my limited experience one thing is certain when developing something new: costs will rise.
@@aaronleverton4221 It's always hard to go from an idea to a working, deployed system and as the saying goes: "The difference between theory and practice is always bigger in practice than in theory."
For non-Australians - "Bunnings" is a (the only?) hardware store brand here
Mitre 10
Home Hardware apparently still exists (but I confess I had to look it up, haven't seen one for years)
Ahah yeah I was mostly kidding there's a few around but let's be honest bunnings is basically a monopoly
You might even have to translate "hardware store". I asked for the nearest Hardware Store once while living in the UK, & got a confused reaction.
Somewhere between Home Depot & Wickes. Bunnings is where you buy all the stuff for DIY home maintenance.
Perun is the perfect fit for a university lecturer in that he’s too the point doesn’t go on a tangent and still adds some comedy in
A great lesson on 'how to make a perfect PowerPoint presentation'!
Seriously. Rewatching and taking notes on presentation style
No chance......Perun doesn't link his materail to critical race theory, transgenderism and diversity - and as we all know, military strength is enshrined in diversity.
There is no point having the appropriate equipment; effective training and competent sodiers if they aren't reflective of all sections of oppressed groups within society.
For example, enemy troops may well destroy your army, if it is just well armed and well trained, but they will run away for sure if you can confront them with layered diverse formations, who are conversant with modern social commentary and prepared to spend other people's money to achieve an inclusive society.
@@kelvinpell4571wrong comment section
...and avoids anything, witch goes against his narrative. Like tough questions.
As a non-military government employee, this is the first Perun video where I had extensive relative experience. And yeah, the info definitely checks out
Thanks for sharing. Not that I doubt him, but it's nice to know from fellow professionals that he does indeed hold up. So thanks again.
I'm currently reading a book called 'How Big Things Get Done', which examines why so many projects, from home revations to the Opera House go so catastrophically over budget and over time. It's a great book, and Perun identifies many of the same issues in this video.
Thanks for the rec - just bought the audiobook. 🙏
As a product designer, I found a lot of the concepts surprisingly relevant. I also loved some of the quotes, particularly this gem: "The final 10% of capability accounts for 1/3 of the cost and 2/3 of the problems". One to keep in mind when designing features.
I guess the pareto principle rules there too, as in getting the final 20% of functionality cost 80% of the investment
In LBP (life before Perun) I didn't know procurement was one of my favourite topics. But I actually think it might be.
Seriously. This and the “Reliving the War” series are must-see UA-cam every week.
If you're not feeling great, then make sure you put yourself first. It's OK to delay an upload or two. You're genuine insight and interest is what differentiates these PowerPoints from the run of the mill school presentation.
A happy healthy Perun is the most important thing.
Jepp, sad and sick Perun the crooks over won't make more videos. Unlike day traders, we're in for the long run here!
@@johanmetreus1268Take it from an investing guy - only healthy, well-cared-for body enables the best of the best long-term results. 🏆❤
We are a sophisticated & important machine - make sure we budget proper resources towards maintenance.
Guys; don't go all Russia on maintenance. ^^ 🎉❤
You've converted us to defence procurement already. We shall gladly listen more about that topic.
At 31:35, for those wondering, what Perun is talking about is yet again Indian Procurement, however it was with planes and not subs.
You see, back in the long ago days of 2012, Dassault had an issue: It was trying to not go broke and struggling to do so. India meanwhile wanted a bunch of new fighter jets. Dassault makes Fighter Jets, so they offer up a bid. Since they are barely staying afloat and are desperate for any sort of income, they offer up an absolutely sweetheart deal of 126 Rafales, Spare Parts Included, for only 20 billion(150 mil per plane...and their spare parts), with the first 16 to be delivered by 2015. The problem however is that Indian Procurement has two major enemies: Indian Nationalists and High Corruption in India. Indian Nationalists proceeded to demand 100 of these Rafales had to be built in India by HAL and that if anything at all went wrong with production, Dassault would be at fault. HAL for the unaware is a state owned company infamous for really bad quality control, with the corruption being a major part of why.
Dassault did the completely reasonable thing and told the Indian government to fuck off. India DID eventually get an order for Rafales. India bought 36 planes for 8 bil at 222 mil per unit in 2016 with none of the stupid requirements for Dassault to be at fault for HAL being HAL....you know, when the original deal had them with 16 already by 2015.
And still the MOD hasn't learned anything from that shitshow of a deal and added a similar liability clause in the P75I deal where the company is expected to take responsibility for the boats which will be made by the shipyards identified by the government. If anything goes wrong the OEM will be held responsible and will have to pay the penalty.(apparently it was added after scorpene subamarine documents leak).
That's why companies don't like investing in India, the bureaucrats wanted none of the responsibilities/liabilities and had no idea of how an investment decision is made
Holy shit with what you talked about I'm glad my godforsaken country didn't aquire the Tejas
The Indian publicservice obviously train with Australian defense administration people.
I’ve worked for a manufacturer who made mil-spec components. That mfgr produced consumer grade and mil-spec components on the same line and the same parts just went into different boxes and mil-spec cost 5X more. A huge difference in the product was the extensive additional QC and performance testing of the components required by the mil-spec contract.
There's a lot less difference than one might think between actual manufacturing cost per hour and administrative or non value added costs like QC and certifications.
I've seen plenty of simple component costs double or triple on follow up requirements after actual manufacturing inputs.
On the other side, ridiculous material specifications and traceability requirements can add significant costs as well.
Jepp, certifications and verification quite often cost far more than the manufacturing itself.
A Danish example, the world renowned B&O audio systems use completely standard produced components, but ONLY use the top 5% tolerance bits!
The truth is I am often willing to pay for better QC. I can find plenty of products on-line that are made in the same province, town, and almost certainly the same factory in China. They look almost identical, schematics when available are the same, etc. One product will have a terrible profile of customer reviews, the other much better ratios of 5 stars to 1 star. Comments usually reveal quality control issues, e.g., threads don’t line up, parts missing, etc. I will almost always buy the more expensive version with the better profile in the hopes of getting better QC
@@ColdHawk appropriate QC is definitely a baseline consideration. My comment refers to the difference between appropriate verification VS do we really need to verify every dimension on every part including all the related GD&T references etc etc. Measuring clearance features in every part is a waste of time for example. There's also the issue of tolerances, which can be different for identical parts of so called different quality.
All this stuff needs to be rationalized against the actual function of the part but that seems to be going to the wayside as the divide between manufacturing and engineering grows.
One factor not stressed enough is how incredibly complex these procurement projects are and how risky they can be. Sometimes budgets over-runs happen not because someone said "wouldn't it be nice if", but because a feature turned up to be much more complex than anticipated, or because there was a misunderstanding on what a feature actually means.
There's also, unfortunately, a lot of *known* dishonesty. I.e. everyone involved knows it is easier to find a way to blame feature creep in order to get extra budget, after a contract has been obtained, than it is to obtain the contract with a realistic price.
Not that I would know anything about it, I'm just guessing, obviously.
I consider hypothetically deliberate underbidding something that belongs in an episode on dodgy stuff
@@PerunAU Like when the Swedish railroad was deregulated.... Tågkompaniet was running the railroad traffic Kiruna - Stockholm at an annual cost of 120 MSEK, which was 15 MSEK lower than the cost budgeted for when it was government operated by SJ. Amazingly enough, the trains runs as scheduled for three years, but now with actual service on them.
Time for a new contract in 2002. In comes Connex with a bid for 60M annually. In spite of the protests over the rather obvious price dump, the governmental agency claimed they had to accept the lowest bid. Less than a year after being awarded the contract, Connex demands negotiations as they are running at a loss.
Three years later, Tågkompaniet gets a settlement after having sued Rikstrafiken (the governmental agency) for their losses caused by wrongfully awarding Connex the contract.
Swedish Radio has a short summary called "Tågkompaniet utan nattrafiken nästa år" and" "Tågkompaniet fick rätt i uppgörelse" for those interested in digging deeper.
@@johanmetreus1268The Germans probably still beat you in this as we decided to privatize the rail in the 90s so they made it a publicly traded company but after public backlash didn't sell the stocks. So now we have a Company in charge of our rail that is owned by the state giving us the worst of both worlds. High ticket prices, bad service, yearly strikes, massive delays and totally inefficient.
@@johanmetreus1268 Some of the blame for that would fall on the bidding process itself and those who designed it. If cost is given too large a weighting or there are no procedures in place to more critically appraise or outright reject a lowball bid then the whole process is wide open to these kind of dishonest practices.
A little-known bit of history is how the rules governing a contract award (with some corruption on top) ended up causing the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986. The loss of the Shuttle was due to catastrophic failure of the structure of the External Tank due to impingement of hot gases escaping from one of the solid rocket boosters. These were built by Thiokol and were manufactured in segments which were transported to Cape Canaveral where they were fixed together using "field joints" to create a complete booster. The booster casing was 1/2 inch thick steel but the field joints had gaps that flexed and could potentially leak hot gas so they were sealed with special putty and other materials, together with a pair of rubber o-rings and it was the failure of these due to the cold weather before the launch that led to the loss of Challenger.
The obvious question is why would you have vulnerable field joints that relied on putty and o-rings, rather than have a monolithic steel case with no field joints? The reason is that Thiokol were based in Utah and the boosters were transported to Florida by rail and a complete booster was much too big to fit through tunnels. When the contract was put out for tender, three other companies submitted bids including Aerojet who wanted to build the boosters at their facility on the Florida coast just a few miles from the Cape. These were to be transported by barge which could carry a fully assembled booster so Aerojet's design had a monolithic steel case with no field joints and no risk of a Challenger-style failure. Theirs was also the cheapest bid, significantly undercutting Thiokol. NASA's own expert panel recommended awarding the contract to Aerojet but were overruled by NASA administrator James Fletcher who awarded the contract to Thiokol. This was protested and Congress instructed the General Accounting Office to review the bids - they could find no reason to select Thiokol over Aerojet, but since the bid process allowed Fletcher the final say (despite his personal connections with Utah and companies based in the state) they concluded that the award wasn't improper. Fletcher was either incompetent, or more likely he was corrupt but lack of proper oversight allowed the bid process itself to be fundamentally flawed and meant that individuals with serious conflicts of interest were able to take part in the process and affect its outcome.
It is a habitual feature of building contracts that the builder underbids and expects to make the contract profitable by requiring expensive variations to meet unforeseen (but not unforeseeable) difficulties.
As a Canadian, I was very happy you mentioned us. Our government tends to be very shy and reluctant when it comes to military spending.
CAF Procurement is its own special brand of hell.
As a retired business analyst I've experienced so many of the same issues in the commercial world, luckily only careers have been wounded & no-one actually dies as a result of the decisions taken. Another great video, really enjoying your work.
As a business owner, I'd be highly interested in listening about the civilian sector too and maybe some business advice. I was able to take out a lot of general advice from this video alone. Can't state how much I appreciate your content. It's a blessing and amazing thing to listen to while working.
This brought back a memory that caused me to chuckle.
Early in my engineering career, my company was making simulators for tank training. We got power control handles directly from the manufacturer that was putting them on the tanks.
In acceptance testing our handles failed the tolerance specs listed in the test. We ordered multiple sets of production handles and almost all failed to tolerances. It was amazingly difficult to get the government to allow us the same tolerance as on the actual tanks they were getting.
At least it was a good learning experience for our spec writers. 😮
A few years ago I started a thread on a Binkov video about "which military has the best bang for buck". *Russia* was the answer posted by a few - on the grounds that they had neer peer capability for a smaller budget.....
I really hope those replies are still there!
Of course, Russian arms industry is (practically) government run. There cannot be a market for military arms, aince the government is the only buyer (exports need political permission too). So best is to keep it all inhouse. Western arms are so very expensive because fraudsters play fake "markets" where no market is possible.
You went to Binkov’s comments section?? You’re braver than I am!
@avpguy11 I consider it a sparring session, then I move on to partisan American and British politics for the main event.
Australian politics has gotten boring since we stopped knifing sitting PM'S, so I need something to keep my mind sharp.
After Perun, anything with a gimmick or clickbaits or goes out of bound of their ability gets ignored or blocked (lazerpig), it's so much easier to spot something wrong now. I have blocked Military History Visualised due to how freaking wrong every modern take has been. Your speciality is WW2 history, wtf are you doing?! Binkov is pretty much pure speculation. Red effect is very pro Russian, like, if you have evidence, that great, but you don't.
It has lead to excellent, professional, qualified commentators. If you haven't already, look up Anders Puck Nielson. A channel called Silicon Curtain has good interviews covering A to Z of the war.
@@JB-pu8ik Do have a look at Willy OAM, former Aussie soldier turned journalist/commentator.
A more critical view of the open information pumped out, trying to get to the objective truth regardless of bias.
No, corruption isn't gone in Ukraine so supply chains for the individual units are still a lot about who you know and and trust.
No, the Russians aren't using forbidden weapons, they just use the legal ones when they attack civilians... which IS illegal.
Normally I skip over the commercials, but I listened to this one and found it useful. The difference is that you addressed how the product was valuable to you with an excellent example. Thanks for the effort. I hope the sponsor understands the added value you bring to the ad.
My Sunday entertainment. Nothing beats starting the week with a dose of military analysis.
same
Better than Face the Nation.
Ass he mentions somewhere, this is applicable in more industries that just military procurement.
I work in the pharmaceutical industries and just getting across the differences between requirements and specifications (and why customer should require and supplier should specify) can be soooo enervating...
lol
I hope this becomes mandatory viewing for all procurement officers and all leadership positions in government program offices.
I was in the Army for over a decade and spent a lot of that time working in procurement. Not the big stuff but the tiny stuff, organic to individual units. I loved it. Best part of my job was watching the things I procured being put to use.
So yeah.. procurement is one of my favourite subjects ❤
I get the feeling that this is the video Perun has been wanting to make his entire life. This will be Perun's magnum opus.
I feel the same way. I have a feeling this is his niche.
I would imagine that Perun denies that this is his favourite subject but it seems to be his forte whether he likes it or not!
UA-cam commenter try not to give overdramatic praise challenge (IMPOSSIBLE!!)
Can't speak for Perun, but this is the video I have been wanting to watch for my entire life.
lol
I worked for a defence company called Hawker de havilland/Boeing Australia 1984 to 2014 they stopped apprenticeships in 1992 thus non trades made up most of personal from the 2000s onwards and when Boeing took over preceded to reduce the workforce by 100s personal year by year. Tradesmen were retrenched first due to higher wages.
Thus no production capability of a complete aircraft for the ADF, as the ADF bought off the shelf or the government created small made up limited skilled company's built from scratch just to assemble the aircraft from parts made from overseas.
Now there no capability to design and or manufacture a complete aircraft !
Gone are the days of a total manufacturing capability from scratch like we did in the past with the Canberra bomber, Avon Sabre, Mirage IIIO, F/A-18A Hornet, Blackhawks, PC-9, Macchi 326H, Nomad etc.
Boeing is a 💩 company,
Was a contractor for them for 5 years.
My experience was such that I wanted out of the Aviation Industry altogether.
An after lunch snack of an Australian PowerPoint presentation
Please do a video on Canadian defence procurement; it’s a multi decade dumpster fire of waste, lost opportunities and entire weapon platforms simply disappearing due to retirement without replacement
I never thought i would look forward to a weekly hour long power point presentation online, but you manage to knock it out of the park every time. Keep up the good work.
"We shouldn't let the British off the hook either"
I'm just happy this video isn't a history of British procurement, as it could of been.
🤣🤣🤣💯
As a British person I can't wait for that video on our procurement process. I mean we did decide it would be a great idea to stick a 183mm gun on a centurion Hull & then just encase that gun in a 14mm plated box with a door in the back.
As another British person I was hoping it would be almost entirely based on our experience given how bad it is.
It could have been a history of any modern nation with a military.
lol
Yes! Yes! Ladies and gentlemen, it has arrived, what we have all waited for: Procurement!
Please do look after yourself Perun!
I am sure we all would understand and endorse it if you ever need to take a few weeks off for self care :)
You're a good bloke, and we don't want you getting run down.
I am reminded of a thing that happened long ago at Apple when they divided proposed OS features onto Blue, Pink, and Red note cards. Now, it's hard to say that Apple really did a great job executing on upgrading MacOS from System 3 to MacOS 9.X. The late 80's and early 90's were a rocky time for the company. But however poorly they executed, they had a great idea that day. It was all about "Wouldn't it be great if..." The engineers had tons of great ideas for how to improve the OS of the late 80's Macintosh. They knew it was terrible and hobbled in many ways. All of the ideas they were proposing were basically good ideas. But some of them were basically analogous to "turn a mortar into a mech." So they got everybody to propose all of their great ideas and classify them onto three categories of note cards. Blue cards were stuff that could be bolted onto the existing software pretty easily. Pink cards were ideas that would require pretty significant re-engineering but could be done in the reasonable medium term. And red cards got the ideas that were good, but would basically require throwing out most of the existing software and building incompatible stuff from scratch.
They didn't throw away the pink and red cards. They started R&D projects to work on the long term stuff. They just didn't let the "blue" project get completely bogged down by the space cadet stuff. "Pink" ultimately got torn apart by all sorts of internal "nice to have" arguments. But because it was walled off from Blue, Blue was able to keep pushing out modestly useful upgrades to the janky old software and Apple stayed in business with a working operating system, if only barely.
The military needs blue development that is walled off from pink and red development. Looking at stuff like Zumwalt and LCS, the US Navy procurement has clearly been only Pink and Red, with no Blue. It keeps trying to do Blue (like buying FREMMs) but because Pink isn't walled off, we will only buy Super America Turbo Bonus FREMM Enterprise Edition Pro that cost way more that the European equivalent. Yes, there are reasons for our Frigates to be like that, but in order to satisfy One More Thing syndrome, we are gonna pay way more for similar capabilities, lose the ability to order more or get spares from European yards and stocks, etc. Would could have literally just ordered off the shelf FREMM from Europe while we designed the Constellation class SuperFREMM as a Pink project. And we seem to have no Red project for a surface ship doing R&D for the "next Zumwalt" which we will need eventually.
This has been beyond insightful. Not only do I feel like I have a firmer understanding of defense economics in general, I also feel like I have a firmer understanding of how to hold departments accountable for decisions made with good intentions. Despite it feeling like a job or a (really) weird hobby, it's great to have you around.
"Fast, good, cheap. Pick any two." Great video as always ❤
I might have to share this one at work. The "death spiral" item is particularly poignant for one of our major corporate projects...
It's not the topic, Perun, it's your presentation. Your videos are interesting and easy to watch because of how they were written, presented and narrated, but because the topics themselves are captivating.
It's not even the presentation, though sardonic humor is indeed my cup of tea. It's the combination of (1) topicality, (2) expertise, and above all (3) good faith.
That combination is hard to find in media saturated with hot takes. When we find something like Perun, even in power point format, a certain segment of our content-glutted yet information-starved populace grabs on tight. (See also: Robert Miles on AI safety, On the Media.)
I feel like for small purchases, just give the troops some money directly. The German Paratroopers didn't have proper winter jackets for years because how awful the Heerenwaffenamt procurement was. At that point just tell the troops to buy a jacket with Flecktarn Camo and hand them money. But in this case they had to use their salary to buy clothes for work, absolutely insane
US did that after a fashin in WW2. They tallied the most commonly purchased items and contracted them in batch at public expanse. The most famous example is probably the aviator sunglasses.
having been on the receiving end of many a poorly planned IT project, this is a video i'm going to keep in my back pocket to show to the newbies to help them understand why requirements matter. I can't wait to see more on this topic
Yes!!!!
... and the sad thing is that any book on project management or systems methodology tells you how to do it right, and then there are all those real life examples of why projects fail. Time for a beer.
not military in the slightest but i do find the processes of the defence industry (and the military industrial complex) absolutely fascinating. thanks Perun for yet another concise and clear presentation
*Reads the title- thinks, yep here's another military PowerPoint from Perun that will also apply to my non military job.*
"Meanwhile for the members of the millenial generation onwards: Homebuilding is basically a process by which the landlords construct the properties you rent from them." xD
That hurt
@@tinedel yeah, I feel a bit guilty having been able to buy. I have a millennial friend who lives in basically a largish walk-in closet with a 3/4 bath and a hotel-style kitchenette in a not the worst but certainly not remotely the best neighborhood and pays rent that's about what the mortgage on my house is. :(
@@j.f.fisher5318 don't be. Some are more lucky or skilled with money and in general decision making.
I myself would probably be able to buy if I've done some better decision making.
Though of course sheer number of people renting is astounding
@@j.f.fisher5318Its always funny how we make the longer term better investment have so much higher a startup cost, regardless of where you're living, because that's how it's been everywhere for decades. And with overall costs increasing everywhere, the only salvation many percieve is a crash to force prices to drop or suppliers to leave.
Maybe we'll all learn to eat the bugs and become self sufficient again. Question then is will we reject the landlords when they return? Probably not.
@@tinedel Don't know where you're from, but here in the UK property prices have got silly over the past fifteen / twenty years. I've just payed my mortgage off after 21 years, a couple of years ago the house next door, basically identical, went for four times what I paid. Sometimes it's not skill or financial acumen, it's simply unaffordable.
Nice mention by Richard Irons in his most recent analysis of the Ukraine/ Russo war . He considers your analysis & regular podcasts of this war as the best, most thoughtful & well researched anywhere, on the net! Thank you, Perun, for your great work.
As a procurement guy I know that I will be listening to bits from this video in trainings until the day I die. Hell I may even use it myself
A world without Perun is a world we should never experience.
Long life to you, and the work you do, it is amazing.
I would rather have a world without wars*, but if we are gonna have them, Perun is a good guide.
* if you look at the trends over 100s of years it is going down... so that's good
Imagine if going back to stop the Crimean invasion causes Perun to vaporize from the timeline.
@@massgunner4152 He'd still exist but he wouldn't be Perun. But some say it's self correcting so maybe the war needed to happen so Perun can exist. Some physicists belive shit like paradox autocorrect universes.
@@221b-l3t "bro it's canon event *menacing mariachi trumpet* "
@@221b-l3t We would just have the Terra Invicta content
“local customs like suing people in the United States “ got me. Haha.
What, your business is better than ours?
I'LL SUE!!!!!
@@Marinealver Americans are cool people, but also a little bit crazy...
@@LD-Orbs Only a little bit? 😁
I used to work for a manufacturer that explicitly had policy allowances for local customs in contracting. Things like bribes where those are the local custom. Seems obvious that they would do it, I was just surprised they had a policy that admitted it.
Yeah...I work for a major manufacturer that provides medical equipment to many militaires....you've nailed this one as per usual. Excellent job.
Thanks for the great video. As a member of the CAF for over 30 years, I've seen too many blunders(aka shit-shows). From the LSVW that was supposed to be tactical but the brakes could be hear a mile away, the Seaking replacement, fixed-wing SAR airplane, the coastal mine sweepers that are missing half their stern, the CF-18 replacement....the list goes on. These issues are so harmful to our soldiers' luves as well as their pride and moral. When are the politicians going to learn the lessons that you talk about every week?
Thank you from Beavertopia😋
Really sorry to learn you have not been feeling well - I hope it's not serious. As always, you produce professional, incisive and well-resourced perspectives that are very valuable. And you do it with humour! Total respect.
Back in the 2010's I worked for a firm that supplied dress and safety Rx eyeglasses to the firm developing the next Marine One for the US President.
Had a frank conversation with one of their engineers. Apparently that program was in development hell due to capability creep.
All the added features increased weight to the point that it lowered the range/performance envelope below what the contract specified.
But how can we allow the president go anywhere unless he has his own Jacuzzi Hot Tub, Black Jack table and it's own economic zone where sex workers are legalised.
@@Hebdomad7 "Mr President we cannot allow a sex worker gap!"
As a Kiwilander I feel this death spiral is happening right now in both Kiwiland and Emutopia. It’s a sad state of affairs whilst the People’s Republic of Pandas and Ramentopia are rapidly expanding their military at an astonishing rate, with the populations in both countries incredibly apathetic to the concept of national defence like what’s going on in Europe.
I think a root and branch reform of both nations’ approach to national defence is required. The procurement systems are broken and bureaucratic. OEMs are drowning in money especially in the US. Manufacturing bases in both countries are fucked. Workforces are severely lacking in skill.
It is a catastrophe waiting to happen.
Haven't heard about NZ, but haven't the Aussies also been on a military spending spree?
@Ben's Random Shows Yes, but because of the emphasis shift from land defense to air/naval/missile defense, there's a greater focus on systems types that Australia can't produce natively.
The idea, though, is that they will gain some of these capabilities like constructing nuclear submarines as part of the process of acquiring American designs.
To be fair, Japan, Korean and Philippines will be active battlefronts
@@haruhisuzumiya6650
Let's hope not.
@@thevoxdeus Isn't there already some competence from the Collins-class?
Oversight and accountability is difficult when everything is classified.
No accountability is a feature not a bug.
though infamously, the Have Blue prototype for the F-117 stealth fighter was on time and on if not under budget because it was so secret that the Pentagon bureaucracy couldn't screw it up. Not saying stuff always works that way. Secret programs are frequently a breeding ground for corruption.
Not really. That's what the GAO is for. They have "cleared personnel" for these things. Just look at their report on the F-35 for an example. Honestly why have a problem with "Gold Plated" stuff? The James Webb Space Telescope has gold plated mirrors, and look at all the great pictures we are getting. That was delayed and way over budget. But seeing the results makes it a bargin.
@@jerrywatson1958 Whee! Conflating figurative gold plating with literal gold plating is a fun start, and allows us to move right on past "Would anyone with the cash have agreed to pay for the project if the actual cost and timeline were presented up front?"
@@jerrywatson1958 The Government Accountability Office does review Department of Defense spending, but their oversight abilities are more limited compared to other agencies. Classification limits the number of government officials and congressmen from reviewing the spending, and it eliminates journalists from looking into it like one could do for spending at the Department of Education.
The best security education online is right here.
Thank you Perun! From 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
I normally disagree with about 10% of any one of your videos, but this one is 100% on point. Thank you, well done sir.
I've loved learning about how militaries work over the last year, thanks for doing this!
I've recommended your videos to many people over the last year, since, I think, you're one of the most objective creators, who makes videos on such complicated topics, yet remains relatively condensed in terms of time. We have plenty of good independent media right now on Russian dissident's side, but, still, it's crippled by emotional involvement a lot of the time, when it comes to military-related topics. Спасибо, Perun.
I love when you talk about procurement. I work in IT for 21 years, and yes, I have seen scope creep. Agile helps with this though.
I've worked at a few companies that have "adopted" Agile or Scrum. Not a one of them made meaningful changes to the management structure. Daily 45 minute standup, yay...
Agile can help, but it can also lead to constant changes and flip flopping meaning while stuff gets delivered, the final product is never achieved.
Hearing this video make me glad to have retired and put behind me developing systems for the Army, and the cluster of dealing with the sheer ingnorance, incompetence and greed that was Military procurement.
I rate the worst to have to deal with were the military "experts" we were sent to try to better understand the users needs. Their understanding of development of new equipment generally consisted of "what we already got, but smaller/lighter".
Having studied Systems Engineering at ADFA as a civi this video should be a must watch! Awesome, well explained and engaging! Much more contemporary than most of the lecture slides (most older Aus projects).
Tell the university this tbh. They WILL let the lecturers know. Student feedback is everything in uni office politics
One huge advantage of retiring a platform early and getting a new platform is that it gives the defence minister/secretary a bright shiny toy to pose next to for photo opportunities.
During the 1990s after the breakup of the USSR developed of improved artillery systems were suspended due to the mistaken belief that large scale industrial warfare was a thing of the past.
This wasn't the first or last time that the American intelligence services were wrong.
@@JB-pu8ik Hey no one managed to cancel the Space Launch System so it does work. Not efficiently, cheaply or well but it works!! Only 10 years late an 200% over budget and cost per launch only increased 5X. God bless cost plus contracts
You messed up? Here's more money and more time!
Huh, you messed up again? Well here's some more money and time.
The US loves the blingy thingies, but we also seem to love our old dogs. B-52, Iowa-class, E2 Hawkeyes, Intruders, LA-class subs, F-4s, F-14, A-10. All had long service lives, The Iowas had low mileage, but we kept them around for a long time. Hell, none were scrapped, either, except for the two hulls which were never completed.
As fast as technology is progressing, obsolescence is just around the corner.
All those AH-66 Comanche photos!
Thanks again for making a topic (normally avoided at all cost) entertaining and digestible.
the finest and funniest hour plus discussion of Procurement I've ever heard. As my much smarter brother says in development meetings: "Good, Fast, Cheap. Pick 2. Thanks Perun
It is more like out of the 3, pick 2, and you might get 1 if you are lucky.
I briefly worked on the USN A-12 program, and this brought back some chilling memories of how that awful program went...or rather DIDN'T went. Great job!
Which was that? The only A-12 I know of is the Blackbird's older sibling.
@@watchm4kerproposed a-6 replacement, kinda like a carrier capable mini b-2. got canceled pretty quick though.
@@jonathanpfeffer3716 Damn. Interesting design, at least.
@36:18 "Hey wouldn't it be great if we just..." Whenever I hear "just" or "only" in the context of any kind of work or project, I am immediately on guard.
Governments buggering up defence procurement... now here's a topic the average Aussie can be a subject matter expert on...
Submarines 😂
The most recent news is that australia is only going to be able to build 3 or 5 (yeah right 5 lol) of the subs right? The 5 i mean 3 others being built elsewhere (read bought off the shelf
>Mess up procurement
>Blame frogs
>???
>Profit
@@pougetguillaume4632 And how are we going to sustain them? I've found a total of 1 nuclear engineering degree at an Australian university. We don't have the nuclear industry to support them. More work to go overseas.
I don't really understand the criticisms of the MOA-S. It actually went into production and has a kickass acronym. That's like 3/4 of the battle right there.
Procurement has actually become one of my favorite topics because of your videos.
You are highly knowledgeable in the field and the interest shines through in the videos.
thank god we have someone like you in western procurement. I hope others are listening. Thanks for the video.
Another amazing powerpoint. Watched every one since all bling no basics and enjoyed them all. Amazing ability to explain such complex and simultaneously mundane topics in a clear, concise and entertaining way. No idea how you do it, but keep up the great work friend!
The overlord of the PowerPoint returns.
The worked example was absolutely brilliant 👏
27°C; coffee, ice cream and a new Perun video for breakfast. Life is good.
Haven't watched it yet but I'm hoping you'll mention the absolute omnishambles that is my country's Ajax programme. Billions of pounds for IFVs that barely work and give their crews tinnitus in 90 minutes.
couldn't not. It even made the intro.
@Perun how do you think ajax will turn out I don't think they'll cancel it at this point so I feel like it'll most likely end up as a half decent ifv/scout tank that went massively overbudget and never shakes that reputation, I suppose it could end up as a learning experience for the MOD but knowing them and most over nations procurement departments I doubt it.
@@Pyyig my bet would be it pushes on to completion as a pretty high tech AFV family. Enough time and money can often brute force through dev issues in the end.
But it may carry some lessons (or reminders) for future programs.
@@PerunAU excellent stuff (well, Ajax is not excellent but you know I mean)
@@PerunAU well I suppose that well known failures are more likely to cause change then ones that fly under the radar and due to the amount of outrage ajax has caused it could lead to real change, when it comes to the vehicle itself I think there could be some issues with mission creep unless more boxers (particularly the ones with turrets) are procured and the javelin seems like quite an expensive atgm to strap on to an ifv but other than that it should hopefully be able to do its job well.
Loved the gentle suggestion to ADF on IFV procurement.
I think it's easier for everyone to agree and say yes when bombs are raining on top of you or the enemy is kicking down your office door, so buying stuff during wartime has a different mentality than peacetime.
Ive been watching for months and months now and each episode is just fantastic. Im developing a first person civ-sim game and the nuts and bolts of power are incredibly interesting to me. I imagine much of what i see in these videos will eventually be represented in my game. Such an invaluable resource, thank you very much for your work.
@Tayday42 Is there a way I can keep up with the development of that game? First person civ-sim is a really neat idea, and anything based on a power structure informed by Perun would make for a really cool set of mechanics. I know nothing about coding, but I would buy a beta version to help you out and give you feedback.
Scope/Mission creep is so endemic and so destructive in part because on some level, engineers will only stay on task when held at proverbial gunpoint. They're like IT techs in that they're apparently allergic to the KISS principle.
It's not the engineers who do this, it's marketing & sales. They're so eager to add "value" they rarely even bother to ask the engineers if something is feasible before promising it to the customer.
@@techmage89 I'm not saying that marketing and sales don't sometimes sell unachievable things but having worked in large scale engineering and construction for many years, those few engineers who can keep to a scope and "not over-engineer something because it is more fun/interesting for them" need to be preserved, cherished and supported as they are as rare as hen's teeth. In my experience, most engineers love to build things and really love to build new cool things where they learn stuff as they go. This tendency costs both the contractor and the client time and money and adds risk. It is most often "change" that is the thing that harms what could be successful projects where all the specification, contracting and procurement stages have been done well. "Uncontrolled change" destroys projects.
No. The engineers want to be left alone to complete the project per requirements agreed to at the start.
@@michaeljohnston6811 Over engineering is usually the result of unclear, conflicting, or just inadvisable requirements. If the engineer asks "Did you want it to do X or Y?" and they get the response "Yes" from the customer, their management will often tell them "Just do both to be safe". Then they have to design some overcomplicated mess, when all the customer really wanted was something that could do *either* X or Y.
Never expected to laugh so hard at anything about procurement 😂 It’s almost miracle we can provide some decent support to 🇺🇦!!
Thanks Perun for your awesome work ✨ Please allow yourself to take some time off. I’m becoming to feel like we’re too dependent on your goodness…Wish you a speedy recovery and many blessings 🍀🤞💖🙏
Want to know why people watch these? Very simple. "Getting something perfectly once is the only true requirement for success". You probably heard something like that many times. This channel puts things together perfectly. Sometimes it may seem silly and almost like explaining it to a child. Because that's actually how it goes for children - a few simple words go back to every part of life. This channel is much better then anything else at putting things together in just the right way to get something amazing out of something simple