US Navy's $700 Million Mine-drone Won't Hunt (cnn.com)

New submitter ripvlan writes: CNN reports that a $700 million mine hunting system created by Lockheed Martin doesn't perform as expected. From the article: "The Remote Minehunting System, or RMS, was developed for the Navy's new littoral combat ship. But the Defense Department's Office of Operational Test & Evaluation says the drone hunting technology was unable to consistently identify and destroy underwater explosives during tests dating back to September 2014. ... In theory, the drone is deployed from the LCS towing sonar detection into suspected underwater minefields. The drone should then identify mines and communicate information about their whereabouts to the ship in real time so the explosives can be avoided or destroyed. But the program has come under fire from lawmakers after a series of testing failures, including continued performance issues and "RMS mission package integration challenges," according to the Defense Department's Office of Operational Test & Evaluation's 2014 annual report."

Comments

Question

[IWantMoreSpamPlease]

Is that 700 mil taxpayer money? If so, here is a solution: Don't pay the contractor a penny until they produce a working production sample. Then buy them for the original contacted price, not any additional "cost overruns"

Re:Question

[Anonymous Coward]

Hell, I've ben a victim of Navy acquisitions (we foolishly bet that they could build a radar). Their entire program is post-contract customer changes, because their initial requirements docs and RFP were composed of science fiction, typographic errors, and a rejection of physics. They got particularly bent out of shape when (Northrop in this case) built a 90% solution of what they spec'ed, though it was obvious to everyone that what they spec'ed could not possibly fit in the airplane. I thought the contractors were slimy shitbags until I realized that it's really a "fuck you fee" for dealing with the financial fallout from the military's shenanigans. There's a reason that the "next generation bomber" is being built from "existing capability" but bid out of the "Rapid Capabilities Office" which has an exemption from acquisitions law so that it can buy and field high risk new technology.

I worked on this pile of poo

[Anonymous Coward]

I worked on this project for a few years. It is the epitome of government waste
  the hardware is 20+ years old and due to bureaucracy, upgrades are rare and expensive to initiate. There are a few alternatives that work! This project is not getting cancelled because I suspect someone is getting paid big money to keep this alive. All the LM team I worked for was/is incompetent.

Imrpove over time

[Etherwalk]

Experimental combat systems don't always work the first time. The big issue is more the massive fraud--you sell it all to Congress with one budget knowing it is going to cost at least three times as much if magical unicorn engineers don't show up from the future and tell you how to make it all work. With another few years of development it'll get better and better. This is still fairly important in terms of conventional engagements because mines are relatively cheap and easy to build.