As a public service, Battleland is riffing through Pentagon contract solicitations to see if we can find spending that might have been curtailed during the budget cuts now crunching the Defense Department.
You know, so that the U.S. military can do what it is supposed to do – such as sending the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman to the Persian Gulf to keep an eye on Iran, instead of being tied up pierside in Norfolk for lack of funds.
We started Wednesday with our first suggestion, here: that the chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and the chairman’s senior enlisted advisor, save some money by ordering the pending buy of command coins they hand out be made of zinc instead of brass, as one bidder suggested. The Pentagon refused.
This isn’t meant to suggest that eliminating any of these will save the $300 million that was pocketed by postponing the Truman’s sailing But every little bit helps.
Being tapped as a Battleland Sequestion Time candidate doesn’t mean the projects involved aren’t worthy or valuable. All it means is that they are able to generate head-scratching, given the dire warnings we’ve been hearing of sequestration’s impact.
“Sequestration will upend our defense strategy,” Dempsey warned Congress last month. “It will put the nation at greater risk of coercion, and it will require us to break commitment to our men and women in uniform and their families, to our defense-industrial base and to our partners and allies.”
Given that, is it absolutely vital that the Air Force build five soundproof booths inside the Air Force Office of Special Investigations’ newly-assigned 3rd Field Investigations Squadron headquarters in Building 315 at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, within 45 days of a soon-to-be-awarded contract?
Notes the solicitation, here:
One of the key mission sets for the 3 FIS is to conduct DoD directed polygraph examinations and interviews. One of the critical components of conducting these examinations and interviews is for the individual polygraph booths to be totally soundproof.
As usual, there are some particulars:
— Observation Booth. This sound proof booth should have outside dimensions no greater than 6’11’ wide, 8’2” deep and 8’6’ high. The observation booth must fit between, and be adjacent to Polygraph Booths 2 and 3 with the capability to look into one of the Polygraph Booths through a one way glass window. The inside dimensions should be no greater than 6’3” wide, 7’6” deep and 7’6” high. The dimensions of the one way glass window should be a minimum of 48” tall and 36” wide.
— Polygraph Booth 1. This sound proof booth must have outside dimensions of approximately 11’11” wide, 8’2” deep and 8’6” high. The minimum inside dimensions must be approximately 11’3” wide, 7’6” deep and 7’6” high.
— Polygraph Booth 2. This sound proof booth must have outside dimensions of approximately 11’11” wide, 8’2” deep and 8’6” high. This booth should have the one way glass widow to be observed through Booth 1. The minimum inside dimensions must be approximately 11’3” wide, 7’6” deep and 7’6” high.
— Polygraph Booth 4 and Booth 5. These two sound proof booths must have outside dimensions of approximately 10’8” wide, 9’5” inches deep and 8’6” high. The minimum inside dimensions must be approximately 10’ wide, 8’9” deep and 7’6” high.
— Each of the 5 sound proof rooms must have individually dedicated air circulation/ventilation that will operate independent of the buildings existing HVAC system.
— The interior walls of the 5 sound proof booths must be constructed of a minimum of 22 gauge perforated or solid steel. The exterior walls must be constructed of 16 gauge solid steel. Sound proofing material (fabric, foam, etc.) must be incorporated in between the interior & exterior walls/panels; it cannot be attached or connected to the outside of walls/panels. The interior walls/panels may be perforated to facilitate the sound absorbance capabilities of the sound proofing material inside the walls/panels. The thickness of the walls/panels should be between 3.5” and maximum 4.5”. The walls/panels should not be of double wall construction, and No additional sound absorption or sound diffusion, must be built into the wall construction
— The 5 sound proof booths must have the capability to be relocated and/or resized if future needs require.
Maybe they can move one of them to Washington, and make it big enough to hold 536 people.