PAX getting ready for budget cuts?

[Zguy28]

Tell you what. Heres what we'll do. I want you to guess a cost right now. I'm going to tell you what I want a widget to do, and the condition under which it must do those things. Say it must fly to 60,00 feet, stay there for 15 hours, and take images in color with a resolution of .5 meters, and also transmit real time radar data of a certain resolution. It must be able to do this in any climate from Alaska to Sub-Saharan Africa. Must also fit into a box 10 feet by 20 feet, take no longer than 5 hours to assemble and launch from that container.

So, how much will that cost? See, thats the key, in a lot of cases, your guessing at costs because the thing your doing hasn't been done before. Add to that the issue of adding more features/capabilities on the fly, during development.

It can be done.

Unfortunately the DoD (who I work for btw) does not have a spotless record with this stuff. Take the Bradley fighting vehicle for a glaring example.

 

[glhs837]

Sure, any guessing game can be won. Your guesses can be on target. Can also be way out in left field. The point is that its not as simple as a shopping trip to Wal-Mart.

 

[Zguy28]

Sure, any guessing game can be won. Your guesses can be on target. Can also be way out in left field. The point is that its not as simple as a shopping trip to Wal-Mart.

That's just it, its not all a guessing game. Its a bureaucratic nightmare.

Its time some of these folks learned to be more responsible.

 

[czygvtwkr]

That's just it, its not all a guessing game. Its a bureaucratic nightmare.

Its time some of these folks learned to be more responsible.

It would be much easier to "guess" for programs such as these if all the decisions were made for the best, but when decisions made are for political reasons that really throws a monkey wrench into things.

Lets make this in Kalamazoo because Senator Bob voted for this bill.......

 

[Two-er]

All you need to do is walk into that Presidential Helo hanger and you'll know why the program is over budget. I say sent em' packin'.