Reply to post: Only Defense Contractors...

Watchkeeper drones cost taxpayers £1bn

Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward

Only Defense Contractors...

...would ever state in public that a 12 year old project would meet it's initial readiness requirements in another year with a straight face. This has less to due with the bidding process than the lack of competence and oversight in the worlds militaries. Since there are rewards for delaying projects and forcing cost overruns and rarely any penalties, everyone is gaming the system.

Say it with me! Transparency!, Oversight!, Penalties!.

Sadly, a billion and 12 years is now routine. If you want to see REAL graft look at the F-35 Flying Turkey. 22 years in development and I suspect left to there own devices, I will see a working fusion reactor before an F-35 meets it's full initial requirements. It's looking like at least a decade before it's integrated mission maps are working as paid for, and they have been fighting hard to avoid even starting testing on it's full weapons suite, so I expect that is going to hit some "bumps" as well.

The capabilities of these aircraft were designed to defeat threats from the '90s, and my cellphone is probably a more capable computer. We need to be funding competitive UAV designs with development cycles measures in years, not decades. Otherwise we will be humiliated by an opponent who bought their gear off Alibaba.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon