Posted on 12/02/2016 8:45:33 AM PST by C19fan
The Navy's Littoral Combat Ship program is behind schedule, hundreds of millions over budget, and incapable of conducting most of the basic missions it was intended to carry out. Senators on Thursday said they wanted to know why.
"Like so many major programs that preceded it, LCS's failure followed predictably from an inability to define and stabilize requirements, unrealistic initial cost estimates, and unreliable assessments of technical and integration risk, made worse by repeatedly buying ships and mission packages before proving they are effective and can be operated together," said Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., told Pentagon witnesses during a hearing.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
I just finished a McHale’s Navy re-run.
Can they water ski behind the LCS?
If not, it’s worthless.
Don’t buy before design. Change orders cost more than a ship. Maybe hold contractor responsible for mission parameters?
Looks to me like the Navy’s management has been woefully and deliberately misdirected into all sorts of social warfare experiments and “job creation” activities with a horrible impact on the Navy’s war fighting mission. Mad Dog Mattis, being a retired Marine general, will be the perfect man to attack this problem, especially because the Marines are part of the Navy. Indeed, the Russians go so far as to call theirs “naval infantry.”
As a retired systems architect, I can tell you that this is endemic throughout the DoD Acquisition Establishment. There is a disciplined, formal approach called the Department of Defense Architecture Framework, which if followed, would prevent what is happening to programs such as the F-35, LCS, etc. While most give lip service to "following DoDAF", that is all it is.
The so-called experts already "know" what has to be done, and they do not want any contrary opinion, especially one based on reality!
I really enjoyed the challenge of applying my military and engineering experience to the disciplined approach, but am relieved to be retired now as I see the programs that blew-off my work running over-schedule and over-budget and/or being cancelled.
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