Navy going to the dogs

A sad story about subcontractor malfeasance involving the Navy's attempt to obtain bomb-sniffing dogs -

The dogs were supposed to have begun working months earlier to sniff out explosives at Navy installations across the country, including several in Hampton Roads. At least that was the plan when, for the first time, the Navy decided to hire an outside contractor to supply K-9s and handlers to help protect dozens of its bases and ships.

But when the dog-handler teams showed up for work last spring, they couldn't find planted explosives during military certification tests, according to the Navy. So the bases sent them back to the contractor, Securitas Security Services USA.

The Navy decided to cut its losses and ended the contract in July, eventually agreeing to buy the 49 Securitas dogs and train and handle them on its own. It sent its team to get the K-9s on Oct. 5... according to e-mails obtained by The Virginian-Pilot, the animals appeared starved, neglected and dramatically different from three months earlier, when they failed the military's certification tests...

In fact, the Navy said later, at least two of the dogs did not survive. Several others were deemed too sick to ever be of use. Nearly a year after they were supposed to have begun working, the remaining K-9s still are not patrolling Navy installations as intended...

The best summary of the situation comes from the discussion thread at Reddit:

From The Article: "[...]Lockheed subcontracted the K-9 portion to Securitas. The global security firm is best known for its uniformed security guards, who patrol locations ranging from malls and grocery stores[...]"

So...The best-financed and most advanced military in the world ended up outsourcing explosives-detection training and services to...mall cops?