Jul 29, 2011
Comment of the Week: A Defense Contractor Willing to Put Its Money Where Its Mouth Is?
By NICK SCHWELLENBACH
Frequent POGO blog commenter Dfens, citing a recent article in
Defense Tech,
writes:
Check out this interesting
video Steve Trimble of The DEW Line shot of Sikorsky's presentation at the Oskhosh AirVenture on the future of it's high-speed coaxial rotor helos. Pay particular attention to the part about construction on the prototype S-97 high-speed military bird being set to begin in a "month or so." The first flight of the bird is tentatively scheduled for late 2013 or early 2014. --
Defense Tech
Ok, POGO, here's your chance to get behind something that would really save the US taxpayer some money. Here is a defense contractor that's willing to put their own money where their mouth is and develop a game changing new technology helicopter for the US Army. It took 3 decades to get the V-22 flying, and that crappy thing is still having major issues, not the least of them being a unique ring vortex state that has killed several crews. When the DoD needs real game changing technology it gets it from companies willing to spend their own money to develop it like General Atomics or Sikorsky or Barrett. Here's your chance to take a stand for the US taxpayer, POGO. Are you going to take it?
We agree with "Dfens"—it's encouraging to see traditional defense contractors taking risks to develop new technology with their own money. That's how the commercial marketplace, which generally delivers new technologies faster for less money, works.
Contrast what Sikorsky is doing with how Bell Helicopter
charged taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars for a helicopter that the military will not even buy. Bob Cox at the
Fort Worth Star-Telegram highlights this difference of approach:
Sikorsky Aircraft Co., one of Bell's major competitors, has said publicly that it is not charging the government for any expenses incurred on development of its new X2 high-speed helicopter. Sikorsky has also said it will build two prototype military aircraft entirely with its own funds.
The way the military-industrial complex tends to work now is taxpayers pay billions for the development of new weapon systems—and the technology upon which they are predicated—but after billions have already been spent, taxpayers then discover it will take far longer and cost far more money to develop the weapon than expected. Often the weapon system gets
canceled after billions have been spent on development, leaving our troops with little to nothing.
The contractors, however, still get paid. (This
Star-Telegram article looks at a special kind of government-funded research and development program, called
Independent Research and Development, or IR&D, which is somewhat different from what I am talking about.)
One way the Defense Department has been tackling this problem is by trying to rely more on mature technologies and less on immature technology. That way there's less risk in the development phase of programs (it's "risky" to taxpayers because, with immature technology, you don't know how long it will take to bring technology to maturity, or how much money it will cost or if it's entirely doable).
It's better to actually have something for troops who need it now that might be less advanced than a highly advanced weapon that is never delivered or is decades away. But the Pentagon still craves advanced technology to gain an advantage on the battlefield, be it on land, sea, sky, space, or cyberspace. Dfens' approach is part of the solution.
Nick Schwellenbach is POGO's Director of Investigations.
Posted at 12:14 PM in
Contract Oversight,
Defense |
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Comment of the Week: A Defense Contractor Willing to Put Its Money Where Its Mouth Is?: