Navy's $12.9 BILLION USS Gerald R. Ford warship delayed again

You also are building a new software suite (source of most program delays) with a different set of (US) mil std avionics (all of which need software integration). Software is not cheap.

Shouldn't all those avionics be in the P8 though so it shouldn't be too much of a change?
 
Some are standard, others aren't as much. With the major airframe reconfiguration required to do tanker duty, there's a good bit that ends up having to be done. Including redesignating the flight envelope of the aircraft, bla de blah.

Even with a COTS bird, more or less, it's not really plug and play as much as anyone would like.
 
This is the new age of the F35c and the electromagnetic rail gun. Fuck steam. Fuck Hydraulics. Fuck the cost. Go Navy, A Global Force for Good.
 
Some are standard, others aren't as much. With the major airframe reconfiguration required to do tanker duty, there's a good bit that ends up having to be done. Including redesignating the flight envelope of the aircraft, bla de blah.

Even with a COTS bird, more or less, it's not really plug and play as much as anyone would like.

Yeah I see that now. You would think it would be an easy fix. A cheap fix. But alas I have been around enough to know better
 
Just to show how our acquisition program is broken:

The Air Force Is Done Testing Its Next-Generation Tanker

It's all the damn changes and higher ups who want to put their own stamp on things that cause major overages.

Want to know why the MRAP was so fast to hit the desert? Because the Government allowed industry to spend their own money and then kept their noses out of the way.

I won't pretend to be an expert yet in contracting, and I haven't bought any major systems or supplies, but I'd venture to say if the Government forced contractors to stay the course and build per their proposal, and then penalized the contractor for going over, unless it's fixed price, a lot of broken parts of the acquisition of supplies and services would be fixed quickly.
 
It's all the damn changes and higher ups who want to put their own stamp on things that cause major overages.

Want to know why the MRAP was so fast to hit the desert? Because the Government allowed industry to spend their own money and then kept their noses out of the way.

I won't pretend to be an expert yet in contracting, and I haven't bought any major systems or supplies, but I'd venture to say if the Government forced contractors to stay the course and build per their proposal, and then penalized the contractor for going over, unless it's fixed price, a lot of broken parts of the acquisition of supplies and services would be fixed quickly.
True.

One thing the Russians did was build to the original specs and make changes in latter models (we use to go that route too).
Contractors love change orders as it allows them to dump all the cost errors on the Government.
 
It's all the damn changes and higher ups who want to put their own stamp on things that cause major overages.

...I'd venture to say if the Government forced contractors to stay the course and build per their proposal, and then penalized the contractor for going over, unless it's fixed price, a lot of broken parts of the acquisition of supplies and services would be fixed quickly.

To a certain extent those two contradict each other. The gov't will make changes to a contract so that would force them to rewrite the delivery dates. I know contractors will request changes, and that's on them, but gov't changes should require a revision in the timeline and deliverables.
 
To a certain extent those two contradict each other. The gov't will make changes to a contract so that would force them to rewrite the delivery dates. I know contractors will request changes, and that's on them, but gov't changes should require a revision in the timeline and deliverables.

Which is why I stated it's the higher ups who want to put their own stamp on it. The blame isn't pointed solely at industry, which is why I said for the Government to keep their nose out of the build process. But by doing it that way, it moves the risk from the Government to industry, which will raise prices, but it will also place all the blame back on industry. It allows them to be held accountable so when delays happen, it's not a finger pointing game. If a manufacturer has negative past performance, it will be harder for them to get future contracts, especially when using evaluation factors and past performance is rated higher than price.
 
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