Defense
U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Shannon E. Renfroe
A U.S. Navy F-35C Lightning II, attached to Commander, Joint Strike Fighter Wing, the 'Argonauts' of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 147, completes a flight over Eglin Air Force Base in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, Feb. 1, 2019.
- The US Navy has a number of expensive and highly problematic programs, whose issues stem from a rush to develop platforms before the required technologies were ready, a naval analyst said.
- This issue is not unique to the Navy though. The Army is rethinking innovation in the wake of past development failures, such as the Comanche helicopter or Crusader self-propelled artillery.
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The US military, together with its industry partners, makes some of the finest weapons in the world, but the programs that produce them rarely run as smoothly as intended.
Some of the most problematic of the military's recent projects belong to the US Navy.
The big problem for the Navy is that the service, just as other branches of the military have in the past, has rushed to develop platforms before the required technologies were ready, Bryan Clark, a naval affairs expert, told Business Insider, pointing to the new Zumwalt-class destroyers and the Ford-class supercarriers.
"We still have technology that is not fully mature even though the ship has been delivered," he said, advising the service to slow things down and mature the technology rather than build an entire platform around an idea.
This issue is not unique to the Navy though. The Army is rethinking innovation at the newly-established Army Futures Command in the wake of past development failures, such as the Comanche helicopter or Crusader self-propelled artillery.
Here are 5 troubled projects the US military is desperately trying to get sorted right now.