Posted on 01/24/2011 6:03:53 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Should the government be allowed to declare a contractor in default and then invoke a secrecy privilege to withhold information the contractor says it needs to dispute that finding in court?
Two decades after the Pentagon canceled the Navy’s A-12 Avenger II stealth aircraft, the fight over who is at fault for the program’s delays and cost overruns has brought that question before the U.S. Supreme Court. Last week, justices on the court sharply questioned lawyers on both sides of the dispute.
The court’s ruling, which is expected before the 2010-11 term ends in June, could have broad implications for any company working for the U.S. on classified technologies—even more so given the intense budget pressures that are leading the Defense Department to cancel more programs.
The A-12 effort began in January 1988, when the Navy tapped a McDonnell Douglas-General Dynamics team to develop a stealthy carrier-based aircraft. The contractors quickly encountered difficulties, especially with the aircraft’s weight. After the first-flight deadline was missed, in the summer of 1990, the Navy extended contract deadlines.
But in December 1990, then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney effectively ordered that the $4.8-billion project be abandoned. The contractors had never delivered an airplane
(Excerpt) Read more at aviationweek.com ...
After insulting the SCOTUS in his last SOTU address, I hope all the members of the SCOTUS do not attend tomorrow’s SOTU address. That would be fitting and appropriate snub given Obama’s lack of respect for them and their decision.
It was even more inappropriate for members of Congress to stand up and applaud Obama’s insult.
Interesting. My husband & I both worked at Generous Dynamics and on the A-12 program. We weren’t married at the time and didn’t start dating until after Cheney canceled the program and we were sent to different programs & office locations in Ft. Worth.
Such a waste of taxpayers dollars, wasted shareholder earnings, and such. But that said, they said the Navy was one of the toughest contractors around trying to satisfy them and GD had much experience with Air Force so guess maybe it was true.
>>Such a waste of taxpayers dollars<<
Hey, you got married, didn’t you? If you are happy and we got that out of our tax dollars, I’m good.
Hey Quacker —my hubby worked at MDC and I worked at the GD headquarters —both in St. Louis. I know that was a booger of a contract —it was a firm fixed price development contract and the Navy kept changing the specs —soon they had to spend scads more money on engineering change proposals. I dearly love Dick Cheney, but because that program was canceled, coupled with MDC’s loss of the advanced tactical fighter competition (now the F22) there was a massive layoff at MDC (now Boeing) that St. Louis has never recovered from.
We’ve gone on to bigger and better things —but that was a harrowing time for both of us. GD was moving their headquarters to Wash DC so my job was on the block and hubby found out about his layoff during the Christmas break —sure sucked for awhile!
LOL yep and two wonderful kids. We managed to both survive the layoffs of over 5 thousand people that day between GD and Mc Air. Actually it was a very sad day. One friend was laid off and so was her husband and they were expecting their first baby. I was an administrative assistant type, husband an electrical engineer . . . after the huge layoffs I was trained to do some Engineering Specialist duties which is one step above a Senior Engineer, of course no extra pay for me but still, says a lot about government contract waste and abuse. There was a lot of the waste that still makes me shake my head. So many people did so little real work, and we the taxpayers paid the bill.
I'm a layman about Stealth technology, but even I can see this thing is anything but stealthy.
Hey Duck, After that the next year, my husband quit and we moved to Huntsville, AL and a smaller company. At GD they turned their engineers into purchasing agents and bought everything “off the shelf” and he wasn’t happy. Yep, we’ve moved on and I’m a stay at home Mom, worked a couple of temporary assignments at Boeing on the space station after we moved here but been home ever since first child was born. hahah funny you are a Duck and I’m a Qwacker,
I will have to look back, but IIRC, the “flying wing” had a problem where it would start oscillating in the front and then, of course, respond in the back and you had the same effect as if you held a triangle between a finger on each hand (assuming you have 2 [hands]).
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