The problem is two fold, the first is that any change in process or procedure has to be approved by a committee that probably has nothing to do with IT at all; and the second is that the DoD is full of higher ranking officers that if you have a 3 day turn around for a repair -- for example, they will threaten your very existence unless they are not done immediately.
The only solution I can think off is that the IT has to be removed from the DoD, and assigned its own budget and director.
Think about how many warlords we could bribe to protect American corporate interests in countries we aren't supposed to be involved in instead of new functions IT. Those American friendly dictators aren't going to arm and install themselves.
If there's one place I'd expect to have trouble hiring, it's the Pentagon's IT team. They regularly deal with the most sensitive information about the US military, and need to have clearance to see all of it. That gives them an incredibly slim hiring pool, so it's no surprise their IT team sucks
I did IT support for DOD as a contractor years ago. I wasn't at the Pentagon, but from where I was, It's primarily a funding problem, with a bit of corruption sitting in the purchasing side.
I can fix a lot of s*** on the cheap, but when they continually buy hardware below minimum spec for software there's only so much you can do.
Wait so its just like my job now? Buying refurbished shit that was just okay five years ago and wondering why the infrastructure has weird quirks all the time? Maybe my sanity is a little too whittled for that.