Ding, Ding, you nailed the bigger problem. This is what most people not familiar with the ins and outs of the defense industry don’t understand. Having worked in the industry myself, I don’t know of a single contract or program that ever came in on the date and budget originally agreed to in the original contract proposal. The military, of which I am a huge supporter, is notorious for constantly changing specs, expectations, systems, and timelines due to the constantly changing nature of the battlefield, which in turn changes their needs and requirements. This is especially visible in ‘long-term R&D contracts’ (ie. projects slatted to take 5+ years to develop). By the time the producer closes in on the completion date, the entire scope of the system could have changed.
Exactly.
Presidential Helicopter program anyone? The Navy killed that because they just couldn’t leave it alone.
Withheld some and added new requirements after initial designs were completed. Required intensive amounts of re-design work which costs a lot of money.
Added more and more capability requirements until the thing was just too damn heavy to fly anymore and was subsequently cancelled.
Sometimes, if not most of the time, the Pentagon is their own worst enemy.