4 ms·
I guess along the way, the activity of designing and building the plane became more important than the outcome / functionality of the plane itself. You see it
by supernova87a 6y ago
I guess along the way, the activity of designing and building the plane became more important than the outcome / functionality of the plane itself.
You see it all the time in projects. People look busy and seem like they're building things, so some progress must be happening. Or is it?
Blink an eye, and in a couple years you unwittingly accumulated a platform that served to fulfill every random team's desire to load on requirements, systems, electronics, sensors ("go find out what people want!"), with very few people making the countervailing decision to trade off / cut things for an overall desired outcome ("what do they actually demonstrate -- not say -- they need?").
Well, they didn't have to pay for it, so there was no harm in giving their requirements. And if the actual willing payor (Congress) had little incentive (or technical chops) to be ruthless about costs or actual useful output, well then there's few checks on that happening. Until some top level general says, "why aren't these hugely expensive planes being used like we thought they would be?" Too late.
I guess it kept people employed in the meantime. How can you cut 10% of the workforce in Huntsville when the representative sits on the Armed Services committee? (I don't know that, but just for example...) Which, sometimes, is a national goal in itself for strategic purposes.
It might be good though, to have a more deliberate plan about these kinds of things, if that's the goal.
- StLCylone 6y ago"the activity of designing and building the plane became more important than the outcome / functionality of the plane itself." Yes. After a while was it about building the plane or keeping the aerospace industry employed and engaged? The design tried to do everything for everyone and fulfill every Colonel's dream feature and mission. Its the ultimate story of feature creep.
- ldbooth 6y agoLike the smartphone phenomenon. They need to sell you something, so they sell you on useless features. And it works! My flip phone is in the mail. They got me regressing too.
- hef19898 6y agoYouhave to maintian the industrial base, so. To maintain the stuff for the next decades and replace any losses. Hard during peace time. In preparation of a war of attritition against an equal oponent close to impossible. How do you maintain the necessary base to produce hundreds of jets, F-35s or whatever Gen 5, once all have been delivered? That aspect alone is critical for the success of such a weapon system. It doesn't help to have a couple of hundred Gen 6 fighters if you cannot replace them in a war against someone who can replace his gen 4/4+ jets.
- QuesnayJr 6y agoI think the original requirements were unreasonable. They wanted a single plane that could support the Air Force, the Navy, and the Marines. This was too hard, so they compromised on a platform that could be adapted to multiple uses, but even that was a bad idea.
- janderson3 6y ago> How can you cut 10% of the workforce in Huntsville when the representative sits on the Armed Services committee? (I don't know that, but just for example...) Close. Alabama Senator Shelby is the Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations and the Chairman of its Defense Subcommittee. Edit: My apologies. Was the chairman. See nobody's comment below.
- tibbydudeza 6y agoHe is not running for re-election again.
- nobody9999 6y ago>Close. Alabama Senator Shelby is the Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations and the Chairman of its Defense Subcommittee Nitpick here. Senator Shelby was the chairman of those committees, now he's the ranking member[0][1]. That said, he was the chairman for many years. [0] https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/ https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/ [1] https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/subcommittees/defense https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/subcommittees/defense
- drcode 6y agoI have the same problem with my personal projects. I have one project I've been in a "groove" on for several months, and now that it is close to complete I'm having an existential crisis, wondering what the point of the project was in the first place.