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One of the things about the F-35 is, the smart helmet with sensor fusion is conceptually very powerful but they're having a lot of difficulty getting it working
by rwallace 10y ago
One of the things about the F-35 is, the smart helmet with sensor fusion is conceptually very powerful but they're having a lot of difficulty getting it working properly.
Why? Well, to get user facing software working properly, you need a tight, low friction OODA loop (ironically in context, a concept perhaps most notably studied in air combat). Develop a prototype, put it in front of domain experts, prospective users, get feedback, develop an improved prototype, rinse, repeat.
But that's exactly what's very hard to do in a huge project with massively rigid bureaucracy. Conclusion: those capabilities should first have been developed in a skunkworks project, an X-plane, before committing to them for the do-everything plane that half the world is supposed to end up using for the next half century.
General cross-domain conclusion (at least for domains where the ostensible product is the real goal of the project, which in this case it arguably isn't, as previously discussed): if the big expensive thing you want to build, wants a radical new capability, see if you can develop the radical new capability in a skunkworks project before committing to it in the big expensive project.
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- qume 10y agoEspecially if John Carmack was working on the skunkworks team.
- angry_octet 10y agoNot remotely required, the solution is known but the system specs are locked in and won't be changed.
- angry_octet 10y agoI agree, but the bigger problems with the DAS arise from it being built by several companies, who argue whose fault it is, rather than how to make it work. So no one is responsible and also capable of fixing it.
- engi_nerd 10y agoNorthrop Grumman is the prime contractor for the DAS. Who are its subs?
- drawkbox 10y agoI know they have research groups like ARPA back in the day that gave us the internet we know and love from ARPAnet. But they really do need a startup like mentality with smaller teams inside to come up with competing ideas. Defense contractors probably have something like this internally and that may be why they won out over bureaucracy, but that then leads to companies blaming one another for changes/scope/spec problems. Prototypes probably aren't focused on enough to shake out issues early on and throughout. Or maybe do more x-prize type events for skunkworks starting and recruiting. Self-driving cars really came from this with the DARPA Grand Challenge. With DARPA like challenges, as a side benefit, ideas can both be military and commercially available and it helps people understand that military funds aren't just for blowing things up but lots of great tech come from it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Grand_Challenge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Grand_Challenge