Navy cuts Raytheon weapon

[unhappycamper]

Navy cuts Raytheon weapon
By Bryan Bender and Matt Negrin
Globe Correspondent / March 22, 2008

WASHINGTON - After more than a decade of research and $600 million spent, the Navy said yesterday it will cut off funding for a long-range naval weapon designed by Raytheon Co. that has repeatedly failed to perform as advertised in field tests, according to Navy and company officials.

The Waltham-based defense giant has long struggled to develop the Extended-Range Guided Munition, a high-tech projectile designed to be fired from Navy destroyers up to 50 miles offshore in support of ground troops. Most recently, in February, the guidance system, the rocket motor, and tail fins all flunked demonstration tests at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

A Navy official said yesterday that it has decided that the expected costs to save the effort - designated as a top military acquisition program in 2006 - are simply too high to justify going forward.

"Additional funds are not going to be applied to the contract," a Navy spokesman, Lieutenant John Schofield, told the Globe in a prepared statement, adding that the "Department leadership is being notified" of the decision.

Raytheon's Missile Systems Division, in Tucson, responded in a statement of its own yesterday that "we are suspending work" on the munition program.


Rest of article at: http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2008/03/22/navy_cuts_raytheon_weapon/



uhc comment: Here's the Navy Times article on the cancellation --> http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=259x12579

[Beregond2]

1. Tech

Amazing how they always decide these things after throwing away incredible amounts of money. Don't the armed services have anyone with the necessary technical background to review these projects BEFORE defense contractors rob the public?