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Lockheed Martin Screwup Delays Delivery of Air Force GPS Satellites (bloomberg.com)
schwit1 writes: Incompetence by a Lockheed Martin subcontractor will delay the delivery of 32 new Air Force GPS satellites and will likely cost the government millions. Bloomberg reports: "Lockheed has a contract to build the first 10 of the satellites designed to provide a more accurate version of the Global Positioning System used for everything from the military's targeting of terrorists to turn-by-turn directions for civilians' smartphones. The program's latest setback may affect a pending Air Force decision on whether to open the final 22 satellites to competition from Lockheed rivals Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. 'This was an avoidable situation and raised significant concerns with Lockheed Martin subcontractor management/oversight and Harris program management,' Teague said in a Dec. 21 message to congressional staff obtained by Bloomberg News. The parts in question are ceramic capacitors that have bedeviled the satellite project. They take higher-voltage power from the satellite's power system and reduce it to a voltage required for a particular subsystem. Last year, the Air Force and contractors discovered that Harris hadn't conducted tests on the components, including how long they would operate without failing, that should have been completed in 2010. Now, the Air Force says it found that Harris spent June to October of last year doing follow-up testing on the wrong parts instead of samples of the suspect capacitors installed on the first three satellites. Harris 'immediately notified Lockheed and the government' after a post-test inspection, Teague said in his message." So, the subcontractor first failed to do the required tests, then they did the tests on the wrong parts. Sounds like the kind of quality control problems we have seen recently in Russia and Japan. The worst part? The contract is a cost-plus contract, which means the U.S. tax payer has to absorb the additional costs for fixing the screw-up, not Lockheed Martin or its subcontractor.
And which fucktard in the government signed this stinker? Might this fucktard now be on Lockheed Martin's payroll now?
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
Harris made the mistake, why does the title say "Lockheed Martin Screwup Delays Delivery of Air Force GPS Satellites"?
Maybe a couple low level contract managers will lose jobs, but even that's doubtful. Certainly no one will get prosecuted. The taxpayers are out millions, Lockheed Martin can continue bidding government jobs and don't even have to pay the money back.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
And let me tell ya, it was quite the shitshow.
Ever look up the epic failure of Harris' software-defined radio contract?
This is just total nonsense: "The parts in question are ceramic capacitors that have bedeviled the satellite project. They take higher-voltage power from the satellite's power system and reduce it to a voltage required for a particular subsystem" Nope, wrong, try again.
OK, time to name names... this subcontractor that skipped the testing, then did the wrong testing 6 years late...
Who are they? Are then even a domestic firm? (I have my theories....)
...they put a man on the moon.
Technology involved are cutting edge and there is no accounting for hidden costs upfront. That's why government PAYS for select number of companies to build prototypes for contract bids. They don't want the companies going bankrupt spending millions on prototypes and not win the bid.
I'm a veteran of several federal and various state contracts. As turkeydance described, cost plus doesn't mean spend whatever the hell you want. Generally even with cost plus you have to get a change order to approve the additional costs, basically an addendum to the original contract. In my experience they're absolutely necessary because the client (the government) frequently changes requirements midstream. About half the time it's because of changing leadership/priorities and even changing laws. The other half of the time it's because the requirements you bid against had nothing to do with what they actually wanted (some agencies are worse about this than others).
I'm not saying that the contracting system isn't gamed all the time, it is. But just as much blame lies with the way the government drafts requirements, bids the contracts and (more importantly) manages them. I had one contract I worked where the admin in charge of acquiring software licenses didn't get us the required license for nine months, _NINE_. We had to have the software to do the work and tried everything we could to get it legally. We partnered with the vendor all the time and they finally agreed to float us a license so we could at least get some work done but we were not allowed to do that because the license was not acquired through a GSA approved vendor... even though it was was free. It was the most mind numbingly stupid thing I've ever had to deal with in my consulting career.
The bigger problem with these large military contracts is they are so big/specialized that only Boeing, Lockheed and Northrop Grumman can even think about bidding on them... beyond technical expertise you have to demonstrate that you have the capital and financial reserve to actually see the project through so it's impossible for someone to "disrupt" the system. Even SpaceX would probably have a problem meeting the financial requirements for this contract (launch vehicles are peanuts compared to the cost of military satellites). So even if Lockheed completely f*cks this up, they know the chances they'll actually lose it are pretty slim (witness the disaster that is the F-35). You'll see the government try scare the big three a little by soliciting bids from EADS, BAE, etc. The reality is they're never to going to source something this critical to a company outside the US and the "outsiders" know this. The replacement for the KC-10 is a perfect example of this. Airbus invested heavily to bid a variant of the A330 that most agreed was superior to the Boeing 767 variant but.. "Merica" so Boeing won. EADS isn't going to make that mistake again. So, they make a token proposal and then withdraw because it's not worth their time (like EADS did when asked to submit a proposal for the AF-1 replacement). And we're stuck footing the bill for boon-doggles like this.
The more you screw up, the more money you get paid... Hmm, maybe we do need someone like Trump to negotiate those contracts...
Help! I am a self-aware entity trapped in an abstract function!
From the article
I'll do it for $10 million (and I'll even provide my own soldering iron from Radio Shack).
Trump, whether you hate him or just strongly dislike him, will probably be tweeting about this tomorrow and LMCO will be up sh!t creek.
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
* those who can't
No no no. That's the best part. Depending on you POV.
The US will probably need all that tax-payers money elsewhere to build the wall to Mexico, so why not use the European Galileo Satelite Navigation instead - which already provides for much better spatial resolution?
I'm guessing this delay is probably caused by h1bs
Apparently, Harris makes more on their Stingray II units than these sub-assemblies for Lockheed.
I'm sure the lead time on a StingRay is 7~10 working days for delivery, or overnight if you want to pay for the expedited freight.
Obviously they have no scruples.
Don't worry: the EU GPS system https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik... will soon be live, so there will be no need to fund a duplicate US system. You can save yourselves some money ;-)
See this cartoon explanation of "Here's How Projects Usually Work", in the top of the middle column.
"The open source version" was the best.
Typical government employees pissing away taxpayer dollars. No business in their right minds would absorb the costs of errors committed by a supplier, and Trump should have the head of the bureaucrat who signed off on this contract on a platter. At minimum the industry standard of "if you screw it up you fix it on your dime" should be in every contract... Maybe this will change with an administration that actually ran a business instead of a community organizer... we sure have been getting the shaft for the last 40 years.
If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
"Incompetence by a Lockheed Martin subcontractor..."
Under the new so-called administration, ignorance and incompetence is a boon.
For purposes of promoting more self reliance, I propose the Government institute a 'GPS Holiday.'
Every few months, at some random point, the GPS system should be switched off for a few hours.
It would help assure that humanity not become vulnerable to a navigation system that could tumble down at any time.
If you read TFA Harris fucked up hard here. OP has a clear bias / hatred towards LM
The government contracted with LockMart for the GPS satellites. PERIOD. FULL STOP.
The fact that LockMart decided to contract with Harris for a component only means that LockMart was responsible to make sure Harris did the job properly [as LockMart was responsible to do had it made the parts itself in-house]. LockMart is fully responsible for the whole thing. If they chose to farm-out a component or a sub-assembly to some vendor and then failed to properly communicate the specs to that vendor, or failed to supervise that vendor or failed to verify the work of that vendor, etc it's LockMart's failure. The government is not buying capacitors from Harris, it's buying complete functional birds from LockMart.
Now, if you want to shift blame, the one place you COULD shift it to is the federal government. This same government has over many years purchased many systems from LockMart who almost always under-performs while being over-budget and behind schedule. They probably should no longer be considered an acceptable/legitimate vendor. At this point, it's getting silly to have the government buy ANYTHING from any part of LockMart that is not the Skunk Works (Which did marvelous work decades ago on the F-117). Oh, and I have first-hand experience here having worked as a subcontractor of LockMart.
Here we go again...
<sarcasm>
You can't apply that title to the article. It's not Lockheed's fault. They have never done anything wrong. They use subcontractors for everything but the choosing of subcontractors. Hell, maybe that's even automated now. Change the title!!! </sarcasm>