tuc:-
A good example of COTS, because the Mil Spec was the same as the Civ spec.
and that's the point, isn't it? If you can get what is needed off the shelf, particularly for short term identifiable needs as has recently so often been the case, then get it! If you can't, then get something designed instead (but then do it properly as tuc suggests, rather than procuring massive numbers of left handed boots!). The problem seems to me not about COTS but about the MOD. It doesn't work for Air Safety, so why should it work for Army radios?