←back to thread

The Department of War just shot the accountants and opted for speed

(steveblank.com)
287 points ridruejo | 4 comments | 11 Nov 25 14:34 UTC | HN request time: 0.892s | source
Show context
stackskipton ◴[11 Nov 25 21:26 UTC] No.45893105[source]▶
As someone who has some familiarity with this process, just like safety regulations are written in blood, Federal Acquisition rules are written in misuse of money, sometimes criminally.

Yes, we have swung too much towards the bureaucrats but I'm not sure throwing out everything is solution to the issue.

Move fast works great when it's B2B software and failures means stock price does not go up. It's not so great when brand new jet acts up and results in crashes.

Oh yea, F-35 was built with move fast, they rolled models off the production line quickly, so Lockheed could get more money, but it looks like whole "We will fix busted models later" might have been more expensive. Time will tell.

replies(21): >>45893777 #>>45893843 #>>45893847 #>>45893934 #>>45894255 #>>45894410 #>>45894990 #>>45895591 #>>45895700 #>>45895838 #>>45896005 #>>45896219 #>>45896396 #>>45897182 #>>45897650 #>>45897842 #>>45899571 #>>45899715 #>>45899941 #>>45901076 #>>45902745 #
1. cm2012 ◴[12 Nov 25 03:52 UTC] No.45896219[source]▶
The F35 is the most in demand military plane in the world for the price. They spent 20 years iterating on it and its now the best plane for the cost with its capabilities.
replies(1): >>45901331 #
2. busterarm ◴[12 Nov 25 15:25 UTC] No.45901331[source]▶
And a truck full of low cost drones can swarm your airfield and take all your F35s out while they're still on the ground.

The future isn't in pilot-in-seat aircraft at all.

replies(1): >>45902098 #
3. bootsmann ◴[12 Nov 25 16:26 UTC] No.45902098[source]▶
“Drones will make xyz technology obsolete” is probably the most naive armchair conclusion you can draw from the Ukraine war. Food for thought: Russias most impactful innovation of this war so far has been building more precise glide bombs, which notably are dropped by fighter planes (and the reason why Ukraine went after those planes with their drones).
replies(1): >>45903800 #
4. busterarm ◴[12 Nov 25 18:24 UTC] No.45903800{3}[source]▶
I'm not saying you won't need fighter planes but why do they have to be manned when they can be autonomous or semi-autonomous with remote pilots?

Hence recent projects like X-BAT and YFQ-44A. Sure, YFQ-44A says the mission now is to support crewed fighters, but I don't expect that to last.