Posted on 06/08/2005 11:35:39 AM PDT by neverdem
Nine years ago, the Navy set out to build a new guided missile for its 21st-century ships. Fiascoes followed. In a test firing, the missile melted its on-board guidance system. "Incredibly," an Army review said, "the Navy ruled the test a success."
Recently, the Navy rewrote the contract and put out another one, with little to show for the money it already spent. The bill has come to almost $400 million, five times the original budget.
Such stories may seem old hat. But after years of failing to control cost overruns, the most powerful officials at the Pentagon are becoming increasingly alarmed that the machinery for building weapons is breaking down under its own weight.
"Something's wrong with the system," Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld recently told Congress.
The Pentagon has more than 80 major new weapons systems under development, which is "a lot more programs than we can afford," a senior Air Force official, Blaise J. Durante, said. Their combined cost, already $300 billion over budget, is $1.47 trillion and climbing.
In the civilian world, next-generation technologies, like cellphones and computers, rarely cost much more than their predecessors. But the Pentagon's new planes and ships are costing three, four and five times as much as the weapons they will replace. As prices soar, the number of new weapons that the American military can afford shrinks, even with the biggest budget in decades.
"We're No. 1 in the world in military capabilities," said David M. Walker, who runs the Government Accountability Office, the budget overseer for Congress. "But on the business side, the Defense Department gets a D - giving them the benefit of the doubt. If they were a business, they wouldn't be in business."
Neither the Pentagon nor Congress nor the weapons contractors have any prescription to...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Is it unpatriotic, or anti-military, to remind everyone which branch of the government brought us the $400 toilet seat?
The people who run the military aren't always right. Just because the mission is true doesn't mean we should give them a blank check.
Bad as it sounds, this is not a real surprise. If the test was primarily to measure some other factor(s), and the missile was self-destructed in the process, they may well have successfully proven their changes or modifications were valid.
Men didn't go to the Moon in 1 step. We had to keep building/modifying/altering rockets that exploded on ground, at liftoff, etc etc until we finally got it all right. And while each was a failure, it was a success too.
Yes, the radical left and only the radical left is still aching from the recent successful tests, including one successful missile test where the target was hit during descent, outside the atmosphere.
And only the anti-American left would want to broadcast a NY Times piece that obfuscates the truth of the issue with much older news.
"What's wrong with the system" is that we no longer have the engineers, patriotism nor political backing to build high technology weapons. The un-ending layers of management, both government and private and unions have turned the defense industry into a mega-billion dollar joke.
They're not a business. They're the Department of Defense. The NYT is a business, and I'm glad I'm not a stockholder.
Let's see...
2005 - 9 = 1996.
What happened in 1996 that involved the US Navy and guided missiles?
Someone I worked with at a military contractor used to point out that in big military procurement programs, every test is a "success". The contractor doesn't want to lose a contract and on the military side, the career of the person in charge is usually on the line.
Ping
FYI - Government contracting regulations required that all over-runs on a contract go against the last line item on that contract. That's how we got $600 hammers and $400 toilet seats.
"What's wrong with the system" is that we no longer have the engineers, patriotism nor political backing to build high technology weapons. The un-ending layers of management, both government and private and unions have turned the defense industry into a mega-billion dollar joke.
Do you think I shouldn't post stories like this when it's on the Times' front page above the fold?
Here's the pic, which looks like the back of a M113 fitted with the RPG screens used on the Stryker. I would appreciate any comments about the vehicle. 
Christoph Bangert/Polaris, for NYT
American and Iraqi troops rounded up dozens of suspected insurgents on Tuesday in a raid on Tal Afar.
You will be welcomed with open arms (no pun intended) and you'll be amazed by your starting salary. My company was BEGGING for engineering students, even pay for their tuition and give them summer jobs working at the plant. Bottom line, we have/had many Asian and Indian (India) engineers.
Highball, As mbyack menitions, it is Congress that bears much of the blame!
But it was a $600 toilet seat ... not $400. The toilet seat was for P-3 Orion aircraft being transferred from the Navy (Active) to Reserves. Congress had passed a meaningful regulation that declared that equipment transferred from Active (Army, Navy or Air Force) must be essentially "complete" - with the intent of preventing stripping the asset for spare parts while transferring a "hanger queen" to the Reserve side.
But the Navy, which had managed to use "off the shelf" toilet seats in the P-3, rather than the conformal seats originally supplied, had to go to the vendor, and request that the vendor supply about 6 of the seats. By the time the vendor factored in startup costs (maybe make a new mold?), etc., a bill for slightly almost $4000, divided by 6 planes, left us with the now famous (infamous?) $600 toilet seat.
Congress has shutdown military programs designed to foster efficiency, because it takes away the power of steering "pork" to areas of the country.
I have worked with the Navy, where a west-coast warfare center designed a program to integrate and consolidate sensor data (sensor "fusion") for a better overall understanding of the tactical situation. Yet the Congress continues to pour big money to an east coast warfare center to essentially re-invent what the west coast side already invented. Thus far, the east coast side has spent over 10 times (for something that isn't yet operational) what the west coast spent ... but the goal is to have something that is 30% better than what is existing (but they are not there yet!!)
Of course, the money doesn't come to the west coast to further develop what already works well, for a product improvement .... it goes to the east coast as pork, and the taxpayer is getting screwed!!!!
And that is just scratching the surface of some of the problems that Congress slips the military.
Mike
Amen to not being a NYT stockholder. I agree that stories like this shouldnt be supressed, otherwise the issues wont get addressed. But once, JUST ONCE I would like to see NYT write a story praising some Bush administration success - low unemployment, economic recovery, etc. But we both know that will never happen because its NYT. If Kerry was our president at this moment, every monumental failure he was responsible for would be twisted and "trumpeted" by NYT...dont you just love bias??
Agreed. That's in part to whom I was referring when I said "the people who run the military" - that means the civilians who hold the purse strings, too.
If you mean TWA 800 then get a new brain. The Navy was not involved. Now a couple of terrorists with some kind of shoulder fired missile that's a different matter.
Perhaps not. But is is indicative of one who is clueless about government/military specification and procurement (= you).
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