from Hacker News

F-35 logistics system to be reinvented and renamed, official says

by _Codemonkeyism on 1/21/20, 5:27 AM with 87 comments

  • by yborg on 1/21/20, 8:37 AM

    The functioning or non-functioning of the logistics system for the F-35 is largely irrelevant, as just demonstrated Lockheed is paid whether it works or not; and non-functioning is much safer for the program, as non-flying F-35s are safe from combat and accidents. In fact, low availability just provides an excuse for the Air Force to demand additional budget for aircraft. This isn't so much a combat system as a corporate welfare program.

    In practice, the US has already demonstrated that its primary airpower projection is via unmanned systems, the manned combat aircraft is the mounted cavalry c. 1920.

  • by euler_angles on 1/21/20, 2:16 PM

    ALIS. Jesus. What a disaster it was. We had to use it in flight testing and our instantiation was so poor that you literally couldn't use it to order a part. You had to send an email to order parts.

    And for the engineering tasks I was doing, there were no good ways to categorize the task, so I eventually gave up and called all the data loads I was doing "LUBRICATION/OTHER". Hey, making the data flow better is a kind of lubrication, right?

    I would say "maybe it's gotten better since I used it years ago" but from this article it looks like the answer is a solid "No".

  • by nabla9 on 1/21/20, 8:57 AM

    This was not a fluke.

    The failure rate of large scale IT projects is the huge. For large, complex projects the statistics is

         2% success
    42% challenged
    56% failed
    https://www.standishgroup.com/sample_research_files/CHAOSRep...

    The new system has probably similar 50% change for success. I think giving the new project to the same contractor may improve the changes. Hhey have hopefully learned something.

  • by pixelface on 1/21/20, 8:12 AM

    "ODIN will be based in the cloud and designed to deliver data in near real time on aircraft and system performance under heightened cyber security provisions, Lord said. "

    heart warming to see us draw ever closer to the cyberpunk dystopia of my childhood dreams.

  • by apcherry on 1/21/20, 1:51 PM

    I'd loved to see this bumped up so that it appears on the front page right next to the link on "Why do we fall into the rewrite trap?" for a nice little juxtaposition. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22106367

  • by StLCylone on 1/21/20, 2:58 PM

    Lets just call it what it is, welfare for the educated. Its a money giveaway to support defense workers.

  • by svth on 1/21/20, 3:17 PM

  • by p_l on 1/21/20, 8:09 AM

    Still done by the same incompetents (but with good sales team in parent company).

  • by bboreham on 1/21/20, 7:13 PM

    “Plan to throw one away; you will, anyhow.”

    Fred Brooks, The Mythical Man-Month (1975)