USA-F .... more discussion
Posted by Roger Domer on October 6, 2020, 8:51 pm, in reply to "
USA-F Markings "
In 1991 the Center of Military History, US Army, wrote 3 volumes on the role of the Ordnance Department in WWII. The 2nd volume deals w/Procurement & Supply (P&S). In Chapter II, P&S, page 16, under Contract Forms & Legal Restrictions, it says, quote “Ordnance expected that the most important of the approved contracts would be a fixed price supply contract to be used under the system of competitive bidding. It was thought that this type of contract would account for 95% of all awards by the district offices. But because of the difficulty of estimating costs of war equipment that manufacturers had never before produced, other types of contracts such as the cost-plus-fixed fee, which allowed greater flexibility in pricing, were also considered.” This quote, in discussing WWII P&S adds credibility to my belief that the ‘F’ in USA-F stands for a Fixed price supply contract. It is in the words of the military a “type of instrument’ which system is still used today when constructing a modern contract number. This is an example of a modern contract number, W912D1-09-P-999. Notice the hyphen before the letter ‘P’, in the ninth position. This contract says that it is a Purchase Order - automated type contract; the ‘09’ in the 7 & 8 position is the fiscal year. I hope this adds substance to our discussions. RLD
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