Selling during a time of war

By: MARK WALKER - North County Times
Camp Pendleton exhibition highlights military sales opportunities | Saturday, January 19, 2008 11:33 PM PST ∞

CAMP PENDLETON - With war in Iraq and Afghanistan, it's a seller's market for defense contractors large and small. View A Video

As billions of dollars are made available each year to equip troops with the latest war-fighting tools, more than 200 military contractors gathered at Camp Pendleton last week to show off what's on the shelf today and what's just over the horizon.

The contractors' targets during the two-day Marine West Military Exhibition were the "ground pounders," the men and women with multiple Iraq assignments behind them. Those troops know what works and what doesn't, and what would have been nice to have during their last deployment.

One of those troops is 1st Sgt. Michael Mack from Camp Pendleton's 1st Combat Engineering Battalion. Mack may wind up an important cog in the often-Byzantine steps that lead from product development and display to defense contract.

A member of the battalion's Headquarters and Supply Company who returned from an Iraq deployment in November, Mack was impressed with a Taser demonstration he witnessed shortly after the 16th annual Camp Pendleton expo opened Wednesday morning.

"Now some of those would have been nice to have," said Mack. "We didn't have any, but they could have been used in helping detain people and avoiding having to shoot someone - it's an escalation of force issue."

"More lethal, mobile and survivable"

An official at the Marine Corps Systems Command at Quantico, Va., the place that decides what and where to buy, said enlisted men such as Mack play a large part in deciding where the money is spent.

"Our job is to equip the war-fighter so he can fight as effectively as possible," said Capt. Joe Shusko, an optics and nonlethal systems project officer, during a telephone interview Thursday. "It starts and ends with the war-fighter. If he determines there's a gap in his capability, he can make a request for what he needs."

Maj. Gen. Michael Lehnert stressed the importance of the enlisted Marines during opening ceremonies at last week's show.

"The folks you are really selling to are the ones who have been to war three or four times," said Lehnert, commanding general of Marine Corps Installations West, a job in which he oversees all Marine bases in the western U.S.

"What senior leadership asks is how can I make my Marines more lethal, more mobile and more survivable?"

The contracting pie

In the 2007 federal fiscal year that ended in September, the Marine Corps spent nearly $8 billion on about 8,000 separate purchases, according to Bill Johnson-Miles, spokesman for Marine Corps Systems Command.

While the bulk of the purchases came from 861 large contractors, the service spent $1.24 billion on about 2,400 purchases from 2,016 firms classified as small contractors, Johnson-Miles said.

Vista-based Amron International is one of dozens of San Diego County contractors doing business with the Pentagon and the Marine Corps.

Founded in 1978 by Norma Ockwig ("Amron" is Norma spelled backward), the company got started by manufacturing diving gear and developing related gear for military special operations work.

Over the years, the work has expanded to include serving as a distributor for more than 6,000 defense-related products, capitalizing on a rapid, worldwide delivery system managed by 86 workers in Vista and a satellite facility in Virginia.

Amron had a booth at Camp Pendleton last week, where Director of Sales Mike Malone said the goal was to get the Marines excited about what's available.

"This show is very much about the end user and a place where we can show them what is out there and how it works," Malone said.

Amron business development specialist Anthony Jackson was highlighting the latest in rifle and machine gun scopes.

"We want to make sure these guys know what the latest equipment is and how we can get it to them as soon as they need it," Jackson said.

"Free-for-all" for contractors

The 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, followed by the Iraq invasion less than two years later accelerated the demand for new equipment, Malone said.

At the beginnings of those conflicts it was "kind of a free-for-all" for contractors, he said.

"It's also gotten more competitive and more dog-eat-dog and the government has really tightened up the process to make sure taxpayers are getting a good deal for their money," Malone said. "You have to be able to show you're running a clean ship - there's no more $500 ashtrays out there."

Winslow Wheeler, who monitors defense spending and policy in concert with Washington's Center for Defense Information, said Malone's faith in the system is misguided.

Lack of complete accountability and examples of purchases gone awry are nothing new and aren't going away, he asserted.

"They are unable to track what the hell happened to the money," he said. "This has been the case for decades, and that's not just me saying so - you can find stacks and stacks of GAO (Government Accountability Office) and congressional reports saying so.

"You can find isolated examples of things being tracked properly, but the system as a whole simply cannot be audited."

Local contracts

Amron officials would only say that their defense work translates into the "tens of millions" of annual sales revenue.

Throughout the county and the Southern California region are hundreds of small and large defense firms, contractors whose names routinely pop up on the list of new contracts announced by the Pentagon on its Web site Monday through Friday.

The first two weeks of this month have seen hundreds of millions of dollars in work awarded to just a few local firms, including:

- ViaSat Inc. of Carlsbad, which received a $20 million contract Tuesday to provide ultra-high frequency satellite communications gear;

- San Diego's Harper Construction Co. was awarded a nearly $8 million contract for design and construction services to repair and renovate bachelor enlisted quarters at Camp Pendleton;

- A consortium including R.A. Burch Construction of Ramona, Douglas E. Barnhart, Inc of San Diego and Straub Construction Inc. of Bonsall was awarded a $500 million, 60-month contact to build, repair and renovate military buildings throughout the region.

Whiz bang

Dennis Reed was testing the feel of weapons and view from scopes at the U.S. Tactical Supply booth Wednesday.

As sergeant major for Camp Pendleton's 40,000-strong I Marine Expeditionary Force, he represents the interests of enlisted Marines.

"They can come right up to these vendors and tell them directly what works well and what isn't so good," Reed said.

One such Marine was Cpl. Julian Hernandez. A veteran of three Iraq assignments, Hernandez has a 3-inch scar across his left cheek, the result, he said, of a sniper's bullet that struck his face as his 12-man squad conducted a vehicle checkpoint in the city of Karmah.

"I'm interested in a lot of the accessories, especially better rifle grips," said Hernandez, who added that despite his wound he was able to lead his men in a counterattack that resulted in the deaths of eight insurgents.

One of the newer pieces of gear being displayed at Camp Pendleton was a 1.2-pound "Recon Scout." The miniature robot operated by a small remote control can be thrown through a window, dropped from a low-flying unmanned aerial vehicle or tossed onto a rooftop.

Images captured by its black and white camera provide live video to a small screen, allowing troops to see what danger may exist. Manufactured by Recon Robotics of Minnetonka, Minn., the $6,500 system has a range of 300 feet outdoors and 100 feet indoors.

A short distance from Recon Robotics' booth, firearm manufacturer Sig Sauer was displaying some of its latest weapons as well as the company's motto - "To Hell and Back Reliability."

A few steps from that booth was Superfeet Worldwide, a manufacturer of insoles. On Wednesday, Superfeet was giving out padded insoles to Marines in hopes of getting the product into the base store, said military sales manager Mark Sanders.

"We want to get into the PX here," he said in reference to the base store. "We're giving them away today to guys who have served in Iraq to get their feedback and hopefully build demand."

Each Marine base has its own contracting offices with limited ability to buy items commanders deem necessary.

At least one Marine thought putting Superfeet in the store was a good idea.

"They feel really good," combat veteran Sgt. Aaron Nim said after his boots were fitted with insoles. "These definitely would have helped if I'd had them when I was in Iraq."

If Nim and other troops getting the freebie result in Camp Pendleton buying a large quantity of insoles, Superfeet's Sanders will be able to tell his bosses "mission accomplished."

Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.

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