Big-bang Procurement

A bold plan from Canada, whose new defense chief wants new military aircraft ASAP. The Canucks are worse at replacing worn out equipment than we are than we are, and General Rick Hiller wants to fix this, as this article states:

The plan is to ram a deal favouring mainly American companies -- no other bidders need apply -- through cabinet before Christmas.
Makes sense, say the boys at the Defence Department. The new planes -- heavy-lift helicopters, search and rescue aircraft, and cargo vehicles -- are badly needed to replace our creaking craft, especially when we've got grunts in Afghanistan who are vulnerable without the right stuff. The planes they're using now are three and four decades old.
Go the usual procurement route, supporters of the proposal say, and you wait for almost a generation. Indeed, the Defence Department did a study a while back. Average time for a military purchase from the concept stage to actual acquisition? Seventeen years! Enter Redneck Rick, the blunt Newfoundlander with a bolder military vision than peacekeeping. "We are the Canadian Forces," he said, "and our job is to be able to kill people."