Sequester? What Sequester?

One thing Battleland has learned over many years of trying to pay attention to Pentagon goings-on is that things aren’t always what they seem.

Outsiders tend to see plots and conspiracies, when in reality the U.S. military is overwhelmingly made up of great folks routinely performing important missions.

However, it’s tough to suppress a smile when checking out Tuesday’s roster of contract announcements, here. These things come up at 5 p.m. every weekday, and tend to range in size from a half-dozen contracts to perhaps two or three times that total.

So how come 96 hours into the feared sequester, the Defense Department issues a lengthy list of 31 contract awards? They include:

— $72.2 million more to support the F-35 fighter.

— A $62,309,991 boost (love such precise numbers!) for missile defense.

Textron photo

Here’s an Afghan Mobile Strike Force vehicle. Cost: about $1 million.

— Four contracts of about $5 million each for the opaquely-named Special Operational Equipment Tailored Logistics Support Program.

— $113,431,277 to buy an unspecified number (such contract-announcement fog should be barred – how many of the damn things are we buying?) of so-called Mobile Strike Force vehicles for the Afghan army.

— $17,846,157 for classroom instruction “to ensure the continued development of Iraq’s defense forces through the education and development of its senior leadership.”

“The education and development of its senior leadership”?

Hey – any chance Congress and President Obama can audit those classes?