by Different Anonymous on the post RADM Blore states Lockheed has been entirely cooperative on the NSC
Let’s talk about the positive here. He did acknowledge the redesign of the C4ISR system. How much is it going to cost? Lots more. Should it been done right the first time? You betcha. Is it heading in the right direction… yes.
How much more is going to be spent on the FRC & OPCs? Well, if the CG holds the contractors feet to the fire and gets it straight from the initial build… then it shouldn’t be an issue of cost. That is, if LM doesn’t play games from the get go on those hulls.
Acknowledging the “design challenges” is a huge step in the right direction with regards to transparency. Shame on the roundtable for not following up that question with “What are the design challenges?” Part of being a good journalist is having those questions handy so you can hammer down to a more specific answer.
Why would he divulge info on design challenges and say that LM was being cooperative? Simple – politics. No matter how much transparency you desire, you don’t bash your business partners in the middle of a huge contract.
Say he did come out and say “LM and the CG doesn’t see eye to eye on everything, and we’re slowly working through it.” If I was in LM shoes, and being as ethical as they are, would go really, you want to see difficult? You haven’t seen difficult yet. I believe that LM acknowledging TEMPEST problems (even after two years) is nothing short of a miracle. They are working, albeit slowly and in a costly manner, in fixing the problems.
The contract was far from perfect. The business relationships between CG/NG/LM aren’t perfect. The CG is not perfect at the whole transparency thing.
You’ve posted many times that the CG is behind the ball, surface asset wise. While the Deepwater program is going much slower than expected, part of the huge problem is that the CG is operating 40+ year old assets at as high as an optempo as those assets can manage. 2 cutters are now stuck in months long dry docks because of the corrosion problems. The men and women on those boats aren’t to blame, it’s simply the age of the fleet. The Coast Guard should have started a Deepwater type program back in the 80’s to be honest, but with limited funding nothing started rolling until the late 90’s – which was years too late.
So put yourself in Blore’s/Allen’s shoes… You have a fleet rotting out from under your people’s feet. You have a shaky relationship with your business partners, LM and NG, who are slowly producing new assets for your people. You have people calling for transparency. It’s a balancing act. If you were in their shoes, what would your priority be; complete transparency to the point you alienate your business partners and jeopardize the Deepwater program, or some transparency, but still getting the assets to the CG? It’s not a perfect world, you can’t have it all, and CG leadership will never come out and bash their business partners while they’re still building assets.
If you don’t like the answers you received, then ask harder, more specific questions at the next Blogger’s Roundtable. Ask what the design challenges are… if the answers aren’t specific enough, refine the question and ask it again. That’s part of every blogger’s responsibility in that sort of forum. If the answers to those more specific questions are still vague – then you have a point about transparency.
Recent Comments