Al Kamen of the Washington Post takes the piss out of the Missile Defense Agency’s Terry Little for his memo writing skills. Kamen calls a recent memo by Little, Kinetic Energy Interceptor Program Manager, “a wonderful example” of bureaucratic memos that “often stray far enough from basic English to be considered a distinct language.” Noting Little/’s frequent reference to Pentagon speak like “harmonizing individual energies,” Kamen puckishly observes”Any more New Age harmony and we/’ll all assume the lotus position and start chanting.”
Kamen also notes that “KEI put out a /’Top Ten/’ list last month of the technical issues the program needed to resolve to stay on track, including such minor things as the booster for the rockets and the means of finding the target. But it appears there are only nine items on the list. Maybe Congress cut the program because they felt KEI couldn/’t count?”
Plenty of Pentagon memos are this impenetrable . Why single out this guy?
After all, Little is a highly regarded program manager.
Our first hint comes from Government Executive, which reported in 1998 that Little “is considered an arrogant renegade by some, but acquisition reform supporters count him a hero for his nontraditional management of major weapons programs, including the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) and…the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) programs.”
Ah yes, savaging your enemies in the Post. I love Washington.
Apparently, Little/’s latest problem is that the KEI program continues to stubbornly adhere to the laws of physics. Little told a conference that “technical problems with miniaturization and weight proved severely limiting” to the development of space-based interceptors. Hank Cooper, missile defense guru and all-around nut-job, responded that “These views are so ludicrous it is hard to figure out where to begin in dismissing them.”
The laws of physics hate freedom (psst, APS and CBO).
Now, the KEI program office wants to pull the KV from NFIRE. Treachery. Some right-wing commentators have darkly hinted that Little/’s problem may be his political affiliation. “I’m a big-mouthed guy,” Little told Government Executive. “I say whatever comes into my mind, and I/’m a liberal Democrat in an environment [Eglin AFB] where they are the same as Communists.” Then Little said it again, leading Bill Gertz to call him “Kadish/’s liberal.”
Liberals are new age hippies who hate freedom, space-based missile defenses and the missionary position.
