R.W. had developed some countermeasures equipment for the Air Force and had a production contract for them that required the production facility to be out of the Southern California area as the services believed, at that time, that they had too much industry concentrated in the Los Angeles area making it too vulnerable to a possible attack. Unfortunately, after R.W. set up the facility in Denver the Air Force decided they only wanted a few samples of the equipment.
Shortly after moving I attended an Air Force "bidder's conference" for a new "interceptor simulator". It quickly became obvious that I was the only one there who new anything of the requirements -- an embarrassing situation because it meant that I really had to wear two hats at the meeting. We didn't get the contract, certainly because we were underbid. I have wondered if we would have gotten the contract if I hadn't spoken up, but I don't consider it likely. A common problem in such situations is underbidding because the specifications aren't understood (and, in this case, the customer probably didn't understand the specifications sufficiently to recognize problems in the vendor -- I never heard the outcome of the procurement).
On to How Not to Run a Procurement Program
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