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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.
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
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.
cost plus contracts are about the only ones that are legitimately bid. most of the others are insider-type "fixes". historically, cost plus has meant three things: 1. if the US Government (contracting agency) changes anything after awarding the bid, cost plus activates. 2. if any other Government (China) changes any procurement procedures, cost plus activates. 3. finally, if an Act of God, War, or other devastation delays fulfillment, cost plus activates. yes, the US taxpayers pay more (they always do under most systems), but they get real competition in bidding. without cost plus protection, bidding would be limited to the insiders.
The subcontractor was named...
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?
At least they flagged a potential reliability problem with GPS *before* they were launched. ESA is still trying to figure out what the reliability problem with their clocks might be...
Unfortunately, (or fortunately) space is hard...
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.
This is not correct. Cost Plus means the contractor is paid for actual work done plus either a fixed fee or an award feed... thus CPFF or CPAF contract types.
Cost plus contracts are NOT the only ones bid legitimately... its normally the opposite. if you know you are you are going to get paid for your actual hours worked, you bid as low as you can justify and then incur over runs later for "risks"', etc.
Point (1): no cost plus never "kicks in" like this. Even in other contract types if anything is changed you can renegotiate the cost.
Point (2): WTF does this even mean....
Point (3): Wrong again. nothing "activates". The contractor is paided for actual hours worked.. thus the "cost" part of cost plus. The "plus" part is the fee paid... basically profit.
Example: You now lawns. You quote someone $50 to mow their lawn. This would be Fixed Price. You take however long you want to now the lawn, and you get $50.
You quote someone $25 per hour for your labor and estimate it will take 2 hours to mow the lawn. This would be cost plus. You might add something like.. if I do a good job I also get $10 bonus at the end.. this would be cost plus fixed fee.
Nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.