Pentagon bloat, etc. thread

[Vrede too]

U.S. Navy's new $13B aircraft carrier can't fight

The $13-billion USS Gerald R. Ford is already two years behind schedule, and the U.S. Navy's newest aircraft carrier is facing more delays after the Pentagon's top weapons tester concluded the ship is still not ready for combat despite expectations it would be delivered to the fleet this September.

According to a June 28 memo obtained by CNN, Michael Gilmore, the Defense Department's director of operational test and evaluation, said the most expensive warship in history continues to struggle launching and recovering aircraft, moving onboard munitions, conducting air traffic control and with ship self-defense....

Fixing these problems would likely require redesigning the carrier's aircraft launch and recovery systems, according to Gilmore, a process that could result in another delay for a ship that was expected to join the fleet in September 2014....

The report comes just days after the Navy announced the Ford will not be delivered before November 2016 due to unspecified testing issues, walking back testimony from April in which Stackley told Congress the Ford would be ready by September....

Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, slammed the latest delay as "unacceptable" and "entirely avoidable" in a statement earlier this month.

"The Ford-class program is a case study in why our acquisition system must be reformed -- unrealistic business cases, poor cost estimates, new systems rushed to production, concurrent design and construction, and problems testing systems to demonstrate promised capability," McCain said.

The USS Gerald Ford is the first of three Ford-class carriers ordered by the Navy with combined cost expected close to $42 billion.
"After more than $2.3 billion in cost overruns have increased its cost to nearly $13 billion, the taxpayers deserve to know when CVN-78 will actually be delivered, how much developmental risk remains in the program, if cost overruns will continue, and who is being held accountable," he added....

Also, its attempts to play golf resulted in unacceptably high numbers of civilian casualties.

On the bright side, its officers' quarters and galley are nice. Maybe the cost overruns could be mitigated by having it double as a hotel.

Lowest bidders...

As McCain says, I think the issues are far deeper than such an easy answer.

[O Really]

I don't really believe in easy answers. But somebody was awarded the contract to design the launch/recovery system and obviously did an awful job. Why was that? How would one go about blaming anybody until after they've pointed a finger at the selection process? Was the design contractor a brother in law? Bribed somebody to get the contract? Incompetent people in charge of selection?

[Vrede too]

I wouldn't know but other possibilities include:
Unrealistic goals
Poor budget estimates to begin with
Deceptive budget estimates to begin with
Pork barrel political input
Decades of rewarding cost overruns
Lack of adequate debate over whether we need these carriers
Militarism being the root problem
Etc.

[GoCubsGo]

Has there ever been a new military class of anything that was on time and on budget?

Screw ups off the top of my head:
Littoral Combat Ships
Osprey
Seawolf Subs
Tomcats
F Whatever Eagles
Arleigh Burke Destroyers
Virginia Subs
F-35

[rstrong]

U.S. Navy's new $13B aircraft carrier can't fight

That its delivery date is delayed is hardly a surprise. It isn't merely a new ship; in aircraft terms it's an X-Vehicle. A research project.

The new arresting gear, radars, and more are "merely" a whole new generation - and that's hard enough to develop on a fixed schedule. But the ship replaces the steam catapults used since the dawn of aircraft carriers with the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS). It's not just a new design or a new generation of what went before, it's something never done before. Same with the laser weapons.

Prototypes worked, and the systems installed on the ship work too. But now they have to made to work reliably.

This is something we see with every new ground-breaking military design. The M1 Tank, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, the Apache helicopter, the Osprey VTOL - all were declared major fiascos, the first units off the production line dangerous and unreliable. All soon got reputations for excellence.

[Vrede too]

All or almost all at massively inflated costs from initial projections and commitments, meaning that we could have chosen to spend the money more wisely on other things - military or not. That some were eventually successful, at times marginally so, doesn't mean that they were a good deal.

[rstrong]

Spoken like someone who doesn't want his own Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System on his roof.

[Vrede too]

If I had some of the Pentagon's wasted money, I wouldn't live in a condo where the damn HOA prevents me from putting anything on my roof.

[Vrede too]

Yesterday was the 52nd anniversary of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, possibly the worst single piece of legislation in my lifetime, though the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 may eventually surpass it.

The former was opposed by zero House members and only 2 wise and prescient Senators. Heroes like they were should not be forgotten.

Senator Ernest Gruening (D-AK) objected to "sending our American boys into combat in a war in which we have no business, which is not our war, into which we have been misguidedly drawn, which is steadily being escalated".

Senator Wayne Morse (D-OR) warned that "I believe this resolution to be a historic mistake."

[Vrede too]

Put Pentagon Bloat on the Table to Pay for Domestic Infrastructure
(Petition to Congress)

[neoplacebo]

U.S. Navy's new $13B aircraft carrier can't fight

The $13-billion USS Gerald R. Ford is already two years behind schedule, and the U.S. Navy's newest aircraft carrier is facing more delays after the Pentagon's top weapons tester concluded the ship is still not ready for combat despite expectations it would be delivered to the fleet this September.

According to a June 28 memo obtained by CNN, Michael Gilmore, the Defense Department's director of operational test and evaluation, said the most expensive warship in history continues to struggle launching and recovering aircraft, moving onboard munitions, conducting air traffic control and with ship self-defense....

Fixing these problems would likely require redesigning the carrier's aircraft launch and recovery systems, according to Gilmore, a process that could result in another delay for a ship that was expected to join the fleet in September 2014....

The report comes just days after the Navy announced the Ford will not be delivered before November 2016 due to unspecified testing issues, walking back testimony from April in which Stackley told Congress the Ford would be ready by September....

Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, slammed the latest delay as "unacceptable" and "entirely avoidable" in a statement earlier this month.

"The Ford-class program is a case study in why our acquisition system must be reformed -- unrealistic business cases, poor cost estimates, new systems rushed to production, concurrent design and construction, and problems testing systems to demonstrate promised capability," McCain said.

The USS Gerald Ford is the first of three Ford-class carriers ordered by the Navy with combined cost expected close to $42 billion.
"After more than $2.3 billion in cost overruns have increased its cost to nearly $13 billion, the taxpayers deserve to know when CVN-78 will actually be delivered, how much developmental risk remains in the program, if cost overruns will continue, and who is being held accountable," he added....

Also, its attempts to play golf resulted in unacceptably high numbers of civilian casualties.

On the bright side, its officers' quarters and galley are nice. Maybe the cost overruns could be mitigated by having it double as a hotel.

Lowest bidders...

As McCain says, I think the issues are far deeper than such an easy answer.

Lowest bidder doesn't enter into the equation; the only company capable of making a US Navy aircraft carrier is Newport News Shipbuilding, so they have a pretty good lock on the market, and they never have a "buy one, get one free" program, either. We're in a little better shape with nuclear submarines; there's two makers....Newport News and General Dynamics Electric Boat Division.

[Boatrocker]

. . . This is something we see with every new ground-breaking military design. The M1 Tank, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, the Apache helicopter, the Osprey VTOL - all were declared major fiascos, the first units off the production line dangerous and unreliable. All soon got reputations for excellence.

All very true, unfortunately. And very expensive. These are not merely 2.0 upgrades or a new generation of proven technologies- these are entirely new gizmos and if they can be perfected, will be amazing, reliable and safer than what we have, now.
They will still be hideously expensive, tho.

[Vrede too]

UNAC Statement on the Bombing of Libya

Many of us predicted that the long term consequences of the attack on Libya would outweigh any short term gains.

[Vrede too]

Inspector General, U.S. Department of Defense: Army General Fund Adjustments Not Adequately Documented or Supported

Finding

The Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Financial Management & Comptroller) (OASA[FM&C]) and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service Indianapolis (DFAS Indianapolis) did not adequately support $2.8 trillion in third quarter journal voucher (JV) adjustments and $6.5 trillion in yearend JV adjustments made to AGF data during FY 2015 financial statement compilation. The unsupported JV adjustments occurred because OASA(FM&C) and DFAS Indianapolis did not prioritize correcting the system deficiencies that caused errors resulting in JV adjustments, and did not provide sufficient guidance for supporting system-generated adjustments....

I volunteer to help the U.S. Army find its missing $6.5 trillion (petition)

[O Really]

Do I hear any Republicans referring to that as "extremely careless" or whatever they said Hillary was with her email?

[Vrede too]

. . . or many Dems?

[Vrede too]

U.S. Still Paying a Civil War Pension
A North Carolina woman is the daughter of a Civil War veteran, and still collects his benefits.

:-0?>

[Seth Milner]

"at the monthly rate of $73.13. . . "
Over-doing it a bit, aren't they?

[Vrede too]

Didn't read the entire article, did you?

Anyhow, my point is more about the true costs of creating more veterans than it is about objecting to what individuals get. Name any other job where pensions are paid out 150 years later.

[Vrede too]

Sign the petition: Congress must stop the Saudi arms sale. Civilians are being bombed.