Major General N. Ross Thompson's response to Militec

This addresses your concerns regarding the use of MILITEC-1 in military weapons and ground systems in your letter of April 4, 2003. As you know, we have an extensive history with Militec going back to the early 1990s. The current multipurpose lubricant specification reflects the requirements that our customers demand and industry can meet and we competitively buy these products from those sources that have met these requirements. The test data shows that MILITEC-1 does not meet the minimum specified requirement for Cleaning, Lubricating and Preserving (CLP) military weapons, and has not shown a benefit commensurate with its cost when used as an engine additive.

It has been our experience that each of the competitors in this industry has always desired to change the specification to benefit themselves. However, our specifications are developed in response to operational requirements identified by FORSCOM or TRADOC soldier-customers. This development process involves both industry and our customers in the field, such that we end up with a specification that challenges industry to meet the span of the user's requirements and is affordable. The specification for CLP reflects a balance of requirements for cleaning, lubricating and preserving. Within the past 2 years we have worked to update the specification with input from industry that capitalizes on advanced technology. However, we have determined from this effort that the current CLP specification represents "state of the art" performance for this multi-purpose product. When Militec attempted to pass the CLP specification, the product did not meet the preservative requirement.

The Army's program is designed to minimize logistics complexity and part proliferation, while providing the right mixes of performance characteristics. The CLP specification and Aftermarket Guidelines accomplish this within the framework of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). The performance characteristics of Militec's product were previously evaluated by multiple sources, including the Naval