This morning, the Ares blog notes that I "disagree" with its post about Deepwater.
That's true, but yet incomplete. Yes, I disagree with the overall point, but my objections really go beyond that. The posting is simply wrong. It's not a matter of opinion. The post is wrong on basic facts. To wit:
a) Lockheed Martin had nothing to do with the hull buckling problems on the 123-foot patrol boats as David Axe asserts. Northrop Grumman performed the ill-fated conversions, but only because the Coast Guard told them to do it.
b) There is nothing "unlikely" at all about the pairing of Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman on Deepwater. This shows a fundamental lack of understanding of how the defense industry works. Is the Lockheed Martin/Northrop Grumman/BAE Systems industry team on Joint Strike Fighter also an unlikely pairing?
c) The coast guard commandant yesterday blamed his own agency as much he blamed the Deepwater contractor, which is Integrated Coast Guard Systems, for the many management blunders that have occurred to date. If you know anything about the saga of the Maritime Patrol Aircraft acquisition or the internal sabotage of the National Security Cutter design, you'd see that the Coast Guard's acquisition system is as much to blame for Deepwater's un-doing as anything the prime contractor mis-managed.
d) The same post on Ares can also be found on the Danger Room blog, but with the egregiously incorrect headline that the "Coast Guard Slams Lockheed".
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