WP: Panel Faults Tactics in Rush to Install Antimissile System

[DeepModem Mom]

Panel Faults Tactics in Rush to Install Antimissile System

By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 10, 2005; Page A07


An outside panel chartered by the Pentagon has concluded that the rush to deploy a national antimissile system last year led to shortfalls in quality controls and engineering procedures that could have better assured the system would work, according to the panel's final report.

Bent on meeting President Bush's deadline to install the first elements of the system by the end of 2004, Pentagon officials put schedule ahead of performance, the report says. Among risky shortcuts that were taken, the panel says, were insufficient ground tests of key components, a lack of specifications and standards, and a tendency to postpone resolution of nettlesome issues.

"Manage quality first and then schedule," the panel advises.

The three panelists, all rocketry experts, offer no judgment on Bush's justification for hastily deploying the system: to counter a potential missile attack by North Korea. The U.S. intelligence community has reported that North Korea already can shoot a long-range missile at the United States, but some specialists have challenged this assessment, arguing the difficulty of developing such a missile and noting that North Korea has yet to flight-test one.

In any case, the panel makes clear that the U.S. decision to press ahead with the antimissile system in the face of production and testing delays has come at considerable cost in assurances of its reliability. Pentagon officials have blamed a recent string of system flight-test failures on minor technical glitches. But the panel argues that the setbacks reflected a larger preoccupation with deadlines....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/09/AR2005060901906.html

[acmavm]

1. Get real. If we were to insist on something that works how the hell would

the BFEE make any money????????