Ducks in a Row: an Expensive Lesson from the Military
by Miki Saxon
Kg and I share numerous articles and factoids. We are both avid readers and, fortunately, we access different sources, so there is little repetition.
He sent me this one yesterday.
The total cost of the US military’s F-35 program, $1.45 trillion, could provide free college education to every student in the US for 20 years.
Oh, and by the way…the program has been a total disaster.
Nine years into development, the F-35 fighter jets (the most expensive American weapons ever built) are still not ready for combat, and their software is so flawed that they may never be ready. Great…
The question, of course, is how important is the software?
The answer seems to be subject to circumstances.
2014 “The enterprise now deals with ALIS as if it is a ‘weapons system’ and a critical part of the F-35 program.” — General Bogdan
2015 “The responsiveness, the timeliness of ALIS information for the maintainers and for the war fighter is at the top of our priority list.” –Assistant Secretary of the Navy Sean Stackley
2016 “It is a software-intensive system that connects to almost every piece of the F-35 program.” — General Bogdan
“ALIS has yet to meet its full promise and we’ll need to go the full distance in that regard if we’re going to succeed in meeting our goals for reducing the ownership cost and increasing the operational availability for this complex aircraft.” — Assistant Secretary of the Navy Sean Stackley
But after a negative report from GAO the tune suddenly changed.
And now, in a surprising twist, General Bogdan is saying ALIS is not really critical after all, insisting the F-35 can fly without it for 30 days.
Really? After claiming the ALIS was the heart and soul of the system?
It’s one thing to have buggy apps crash your computer or phone, but quite another to have buggy maintenance software crash your jet.
Obviously, free college would probably offer our country a higher ROI than flawed software in a weapon system going nowhere, although not the bragging rights so dear to the hearts of our military.
Of course, ROI has never carried much weight when it comes to funding pet projects — which holds true for industry, too.
