DoD Space Systems WAY over budget!

[najab]

America's high frontier, its high-tech, cutting-edge defense systems in space may be decades ahead of the rest of the world, but they are also years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget.<br /><br />And that is the documented conclusion not of pacifist or liberal critics but of the Bush administration's own Government Accountability Office.<br /><br />However, the most worrying conclusion to be drawn from the GAO's latest inquiry into the status and short-falls of the U.S. government's military space programs is that there is no single agency, company or simple villain to blame for the problems.<br /><br />A detailed, program-by-program analysis of the state of seven different programs finds different kinds of problems and delays.<br /><br />Link.

 

[chriscdc]

Could it be that the politicians don't really understand the technology? Here in britain we have the same problems. I currently have a temporary job with the NHS. In my department we have 4 computers which run specialist software and internet and word processing. However the computers use windows which must cost at least £50 per computer for the liscence. The security prevents you from doing anything apart from the above mentioned programmes. So why don't they use Linux, openoffice and mozilla which would save them at least £100 per computer?<br /><br />In britain most politicians were either lawyers or doctors. Neither of which puts great emphasis on learning about technology used for infrastructure.<br /><br />Polititicians do not understand tech but they do understand the effect on employment on their constituences. So the question is whether to really learn about the tech involved or to go with what will be ideal for them.