Late at Night is a book that everyone can relate to. Do you sit up at night and ponder over certain events that have happened in your life? It is Late at Night, includes Short stories of different people who have been through life changing events. You will see how they coped with being heart broken, taken advantage of, beaten, and lives depression. Take a deeper look into the lives of Kelly, Mark, and Ray, as they deal with the hardships that life has thrown each at them. Youll want to keep reading this diverse story book as it all unfolds.
You heard the story of the Big Bad Wolf? This story picks up where that story leaves off. It is the tale of The Three Pigs' journey out into the far lands beyond the eastern mountains in search of wild pumpkins, the most delectable treat a pig can enjoy, and one available only once a year. This is the first time the brothers will go so far from home. The journey will introduce them to places and experiences beyond their wildest dreams. They will make new friends, and run into some old enemies. One thing is for sure. As is true with so much of life, and is certainly true of all adventure, once they make this journey they will never be the same.
The presence of a technologically superior defense industrial base has been a foundation of U.S. strategy since 1945. While the implementation of the budget cuts in the Budget Control Act of 2011 has caused concerns for the industrial base, the resulting debate has been lacking in empirical analysis. The purpose of this research is to measure the impact of the current defense drawdown across all the tiers of the industrial base. This report analyzes prime and subprime Defense Department contract data to measures the impacts of the drawdown by sector to better understand how prime and subprime contractors have responded to this external market shock.
Economics scholars and policymakers have rung alarm bells about the increasing threat of consolidation within industrial sectors. This paper examines the importance of industrial concentration in U.S. defense acquisition in two ways: first, a direct relationship between concentration and performance outcomes; and second, a mediating relationship, where concentration influences performance through reduced competition for defense acquisition. The study created a large contract dataset incorporating economic statistics on industrial sectors and analyzed it using multilevel logit models. The study finds that subsector concentration correlates with greater rates of termination. Contrary to the hypothesis, competition is associated with higher rates of termination, and only single-offer competition is significantly associated with lower rates of cost ceiling breaches. Taken together, the results are consistent with the literature on the risk of concentration’s connection with market power but also suggest that the mechanisms of competition are worthy of future study.
Traditional contracting is primarily transactional, rewarding contractors when deliveries are made or certain process milestones are met. Performance-Based Logistic (PBL) contracting seeks to base contractor incentives on ongoing performance measures to achieve reliability and cost savings. Key to the success of these arrangements are the incentives that align the interests of the customer and the vendor. This report describes the incentives used in PBL contracts, identifies best practices, and provides recommendations for effective incentives going forward. The study team interviewed PBL practitioners including defense-unique contractors, defense-commercial contractors, and experts who are knowledgeable in the government perspective in the United States and abroad. The team supplemented these interviews by analyzing a PBL dataset of U.S. Department of Defense contracts. Of the four identified categories of incentives—time-based, financial, scope, and other—interviews found that time-based incentives stood out for their reliable appeal and relative underuse in the United States.
The federal government’s use of Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreements has exploded in recent years, thanks in large part to a surge in popularity within the Department of Defense (DoD). Rather than a contract, grant, or cooperative agreement, OTAs are an acquisition approach that pursues innovation by enabling certain federal agencies to access goods and services outside of the traditional acquisition system. This CSIS report examines the notable trends in DoD OTA usage since the DoD's authority to enter into OTAs was expanded by the statuary changes in the FY 2015 and FY 2016 NDAAs. It seeks to provide insight into how the DoD is using OTAs to pursue innovation, how DoD spending under an OTA is organized, and to whom the majority of OTA obligations go.
Researching and manufacturing fighters, ships, and tanks are only part of the picture for defense contracts. Contracting for services accounts for over 41 percent of DoD contract obligations in 2018. Services include maintaining equipment, moving people and things, creating software, providing server space, and construction. Service contracting is challenging as services can be difficult to define and measure. But services are increasingly central to the U.S. economy. The Department of Defense seeks to attract new firms that will increase its speed and agility—many of these firms are service providers, e.g., data analytics or cloud computing. CSIS looked at a million contracts to evaluate how three factors influence performance: 1.service complexity 2.contract-management capacity 3.vendor’s history working with a DoD contracting office The existing data fails to explain large differences in contract office performance. More DoD transparency about contracting office capacity could help make a case for further investments. The report also found that when vendors and contracting offices have a longer history, they tend to have better results. That means DoD needs to think not only about recruiting new partners, but also about helping them succeed.
In light of Section 881 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, which expanded the legal definition of the National Technology and Industrial Base (NTIB) to include the United Kingdom and Australia, this report informs NTIB partners on barriers and opportunities for effective integration. The expansion of the NTIB is based on the principle that defense trade between the United States and its closest allies enables a host of benefits, including increased access to innovation, economies of scale, and interoperability. In order to reap the greatest benefits of a new era of NTIB, this report uses the lessons learned from study of the present state of integration to identify areas of opportunity for policy reforms and greater cooperation.
There has been a significant rise in the proliferation of military uninhabited aerial systems. This report reveals drivers and implications by examining the Nagorno-Karabakh war, the Russian war in Ukraine, and contracting and international trade data.
With the advent of the information age, both commercial industry and the Department of Defense are moving towards complex R&D-intensive systems over the simpler, mass-produced systems of the industrial age. This CSIS report analyzes the historical trends in the relationship of production costs to development costs in complex acquisition programs. To understand this phenomenon, the study team examines it at two different levels. The first is the macro investment level where portfolio management trade-offs are made between aggregate development and procurement and between programs. The second level is individual programs where the ambitions of the program and the underlying technology shape the resources required for a program to complete development.
International joint development programs are important because of their potential to reduce costs and increase partnership benefits such as interoperability, economies of scale, and technical advancement. While all major development and acquisition programs are complex undertakings, international joint development programs introduce additional layers of complexity in the requirement for coordination with more than one government customer, supply chain and organizational complexities resulting from international industrial teaming, and technology control issues. The performance of international joint development programs varies greatly. This study compares the best practices of international joint development and domestic development programs through case-study analysis to identify the key variables that contribute to a program’s eventual success or failure and to understand the elements that are crucial to managing these programs.
Defense Acquisition Trends 2021 is the latest in an annual series of CSIS reports examining trends in what the DoD is buying, how the DoD is buying it, and from whom the DoD is buying using data from the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS). This report analyzes the current state of affairs in defense acquisition by combining detailed policy and data analysis to provide a comprehensive overview of the current and future outlook for defense acquisition. It provides critical insights into understanding the current trends in the defense-industrial base and the implications of those trends on acquisition policy.
Long ago, during each Christmas season, children worried for weeks whether they would get special gifts, treats, and treasures in their stockings or be stuck with nothing but coal. Parents claimed coal was for children who annoyed brothers and sisters or disobeyed parents, but sometimes even those who behaved the best would get nothing but a stocking full of black disappointment. There was no Santa to deliver gifts to all, and when the Christmas elf visited their home, children never knew what to expect. The plight of two little girls, Grace and Harmony, inspires Will, their friend and neighborhood blacksmith, to do something about this problem. He begins making special toys in his blacksmith shop for his two favorite girls. Soon, this caring and enterprising blacksmith sets out to solve the stocking mystery and make Christmas a time of happiness for all children. A picture book for people of all ages, A Blacksmith Christmas tells the story of how Santa got his start and how the elves and reindeer came to be his helpers.
This study examines contracting trends at the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). It relies on empirical analysis of DoD contracting transaction data from the open-source Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS). The authors seek to identify and study emergent trends in the contracting data and marry that analysis with discussion of changing goals and methods for the larger acquisition system.
This report analyzes the current state of affairs in defense acquisition by combining detailed policy and data analysis to provide a comprehensive overview of the current and future outlook for defense acquisition. This analysis will provide critical insights into what DoD is buying, how DoD is buying it, from whom is DoD buying, and what are the defense components buying using data from the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS). This analysis provides critical insights into understanding the current trends in the defense industrial base and the implications of those trends on acquisition policy.
This study evaluates the health of the U.S.-Canadian defense industrial relationship, which is critically important as the U.S. Department of Defense expands the national technology and industrial base. The CSIS study team gathered and analyzed a wide range of quantitative data and conducted interviews with government and industry officials involved with bilateral cooperation on both sides of the border. In addition to looking at top-level history, legislation, policy, and trends, the study team undertook five sectoral case studies highlighting different aspects of the benefits from and challenges facing bilateral cooperation. The study finds that the benefits to both partners exceed what either could obtain solely by relying only on its own national resources. While the overall U.S.-Canadian defense industrial relationship remains sound, the study team identifies a range of recommendations to enhance its value to both partners.
In a time of austerity, the U.S. government’s reliance on the private sector for a range of services has declined for two consecutive years. Even so, real services contract spending in 2012 remains more than 80 percent above the level in 2000. The CSIS Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group brings eight years of experience to the task of understanding this industry in flux. This report examines contract factors, like competition, funding mechanism, and vehicle, while also looking at industrial base factors like vendor market share by size and top contractors by total services revenue. The study team then applies this analysis to individual government customers and service areas. The 2000–2012 iteration of the report also significantly updates the policy implications chapter. This section examines the controversial topics of contract size and multi-award contracts to determine what the data say about their ramifications.
In a time of austerity, the U.S. Department of Defense has drawn budgetary savings primarily from reductions in private-sector contracting. The 2000-2012 edition of this report by National Security Program for Industry and Resources (NSPIR) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) examines this trend as well as its broader implications for defense industrial policy. The report analyzes contracting for products, services, and research and development by the U.S. Department of Defense overall and by key components. The 2000-2012 report investigates seven key facets of the defense industrial base and provides detailed answers to pressing acquisition policy questions.
This report analyzes contracting for products, services, and research development by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its key components. In provides an in-depth look at trends in DHS contracting since the establishment of the agency and provides an initial picture of the impact that sequestration has had on government contracting and the supporting industrial base. This third edition of the DHS report updates reports from previous years and provides greater depth of analysis. Additionally, for the first time, this year’s report examines trends in DHS grant awards, using publicly available data to examine what DHS is awarding grants for, and who is receiving those grants.
This report analyzes contracting for products, services, and research & development (R&D) by the Department of Defense (DoD) and its key components. In provides an in-depth look at trends in DoD contracting since 2000, and provides an initial picture of the impact that sequestration has had on DoD contracting and the supporting industrial base. This fourth edition of the DoD report updates reports from previous years and provides greater breadth of analysis. The report examines trends in DoD contracting, breaking down DoD contract spending by a variety of contract and vendor characteristics. The report then uses this data to address key policy questions related to DoD contracting.
A history of one of the least known and most misunderstood battles in the Vietnam War. The strategic potential of the three-day attack of two North Vietnamese Army (NVA) regiments on Kham Duc, a remote and isolated Army Special Forces camp, on the eve of the first Paris peace talks in May 1968, was so significant that former President Lyndon Johnson included it in his memoirs. This gripping, original, eyewitness narrative and thoroughly researched analysis of a widely misinterpreted battle at the height of the Vietnam War radically contradicts all the other published accounts of it. In addition to the tactical details of the combat narrative, the authors consider the grand strategies and political contexts of the U.S. and North Vietnamese leaders. Praise for Bait: The Battle of Kham Duc “This book is a must read for any Vietnam historian or veteran.” —Patrick Brady, Major General, USA (ret.), Medal of Honor Recipient “For an authentic, detailed view of how large battles between U.S. combined-arms forces and regular North Vietnamese Army forces were fought in Vietnam in 1968, Bait: The Battle of Kham Duc is required reading.” —General H. Hugh Shelton, 14th Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff “This first-hand, exhaustively documented account of a large battle in the Vietnam War shows the decisive role of air power in all its forms.” —Carl Schneider, Major General, USAF (ret.) “One of those rare historical narratives that explains in rich detail a battle that was little understood or reported on at the time it was fought but was of strategic importance and heroic dimension.” —Marine Corps Gazette “The account of the battle is both detailed and exceptionally well-written; McLeroy’s participation in the battle adds authenticity to the narrative.... Highly recommended for anyone interested in how large-scale battles were fought in Vietnam at the height of U.S. commitment on the ground there.” —Journal of Military History
Thomas Makiyama, an eighth-degree black belt and the only American officially certified shihan by any Japanese aikido organization, teaches preparation, basic directional throws, classification forms, and basic and advanced self-defense.
Over two hundred years in the future, humans have spread colonies throughout the galaxy using faster than light ships. Their explorations have revealed allies, as well as enemies. The aggressive Tyrannii have swept an unstoppable war campaign through the center of human territory, destroyed Earth, and established martial law over the remaining human territories. A fractured human government faces extinction at the hands of a warrior race of reptilians. Onto this stage of chaos steps Adam Wynn, a bounty hunter indifferent to the war and its outcome. His profession is killing, and he is the best. But when he works for the Tyrannii, they betray him. With his crew slaughtered and everything he owns destroyed by his employers, vengeance is his only reason for life. No one, least of all himself, ever expected that one day he would become the turning point in the war.
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