[pauldun170]

Damn me and my short term memory. Completely forgot about this thread.

The issue with military contracts is that it takes so long to fill out the paperwork that by the time you finish the first set of docs requesting the docs that initiate a requirements signoff, some lobbyists tells some congressman to hold a committee to test the feasibility of doing something that to the program that benefits the lobbyists sugar daddies. Then the lobbyists hit up generals and generals start pressuring committee members and then committee members start asking generals crap and then
Election cycle break where everyone goes on the road and promises crap.
In the mean time, $$$ get pulled to go to a program with more muscular lobbyists behind it and then some think tank starts handing out papers saying ....

yada yada yada
Mission creep magically appears and then rework, renegotiation more funding
Then as the years go by, as new weapons system development new threats and countermeasure pop up...you have to figure that in.
Then someone complains that you are over budget and spending to much so they cut production numbers which then gets factored into the formula used in cartoons.
Total cost\production number = cost per unit
So lets say you have a good estimate on program cost and you budget properly. Figure the program is going to take 5-7 years until you begin serious testing.
Lets assume no changes in requirements come down.


Congress decides they would rather spend money on new Congressional marble bath house with gold covered faucets and velvet covered minorities to serve champagne in honor of Senator X's 15 reelection. So they cut the units ordered from 500 to 150 and then they also cut funding to an alternative engine for the project.
Now the unit costs have gone up the wazoo and lobbyists from competing companies, hippies and the like scream WASTE!!! The thing that cost 11 billionty dollars!!! per thing.

Then the questions get asked.
Why do we need this?
What does it do?
then someone says "Why can't it do X ? It cost 11 billionty per thingy so it should at least be able to do X!!!"
Then the committees happen.
Then the threats begin.
Then the new requirements come rolling in.
Then ....


I don't know. I guess I don't know.

Maybe sometimes, a manufacturer needs to keep the production lines rolling.
So everyone works together to toss em a couple of bucks. Get program A to use a component from district 12 or something. So you figure something out.
Sometimes, you overlook stuff in testing because it threatens the contract. (Fix it later...the threat of cancellation early in the program is a lot stronger than when you have billions in supply chain, leases and orders in play. )

I guess I'm not sure.

I apologize for the rambling.
I'm multitasking too much today