I'd like to start by commenting on what you referred to in the U.S., which is the community of industrial capacity outside the bases. The Communications-Electronics Command in the U.S. is a good example, because it buys for many different parts of the U.S. military. It has spawned a fine group of SMEs close by. They talk to the defense department and get real-time responses to their needs, so the industry grows.
We simply don't have enough action at our bases to justifying spawning that many companies. Some do. The guys who provide repair and overhaul services could be close by.
The second thing you alluded to is crucial. That's the line of sight and connectivity between the investors, the scientists, the industrialists who build the stuff, and the users. Everybody works hard at it, but we need to find a better way to bring that community together to pick the winners--and I don't mean at the expense of losers. If we're doing something in science--it could be the Med-Eng example--and we're going to buy it, let's connect it and get it done with a minimum amount of process.
That's what you hit on that's so relevant to what we're proposing. How do we streamline that without losing accountability, and create the jobs locally?
Thank you.