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I worked on a radar system that could see precipitation- think doppler radar map view. The ability to do this was in the contract but there was no way to view i
by 2OEH8eoCRo0 3y ago
I worked on a radar system that could see precipitation- think doppler radar map view. The ability to do this was in the contract but there was no way to view it. We had Matlab scripts so we the devs could view it and the weather people wanted them. We weren't allowed to hand them over without a contract. They'd pop in multiple times a day to view our doppler.
The adversarial nature that defense companies treat our military is appalling. I'm convinced that refactoring a lot of this BS could get us way more with less $
- mortify 3y agoIf the viewing software was provided, the support would be included and that will cost money in the long term. That is something that the company didn't agree to provide nor the government to pay for. In this case, the adversary wasn't the contractor, it was the users in the government and the government employees holding the purse strings. No contractor will turn down the chance to extend the contract.
- JamesBarney 3y agoA lot of this adversarial nature comes down to how projects are awarded. Government employees have very little discretion to choose projects, so they always go with the cheapest bid. But no large software project ever has had 0 change orders. So the only profitable way to win these contracts is offer the cheapest bid by delivering as little as possible while being in spec, and then pillaging on the change orders.
- FooBarBizBazz 3y agoWhat about the "new defense" companies, who use VC money to build demos? Surely they eventually want to build moats and sell razor blades, but for now what they're doing seems different?