The US Defence Department, looking at the world around itself, has joined the dance of numerical iteration (in computer parlance: the upgrade) and is looking towards more open architectures so that it is not beholden to particular providers, like Lockheed. Nothing like good old-fashioned competition to reduce expenditure, and upgrade platforms.
In 2008, then-Pentagon acquisition chief John Young put the total cost of developing and installing Increment 3.1 and what became 3.2A and 3.2B at around $8 billion. The figure has likely gone up because the Air Force now plans to upgrade more F-22s.
Once the new architecture is installed, "if we want a new capability on the airplane, we can go out to industry with an RfI [request for information] and say, 'You all got good ideas; can you make it work with this architecture?'" Weber said.
The ultimate goal is to allow systems such as new radars to be "plug-and-play," as a printer might be to a desktop computer, he said.
How can they turn 'plug and play' into a dance of billions? Unbelievable. Baby boomers! Your vanished entitlements have funded empire (and what resources did you get out of Afghanistan for that investment?)
