Re:A Fatal Error Inspired a Plan to Reduce Friendly Fire
by p_l on Friday April 02, 2021 @07:02AM
(#26670472)
The difference is that the Bradley was actually a good design - the main source of bad PR about the project is also the person responsible for significant portion of the cost overruns and problems.
Re:A Fatal Error Inspired a Plan to Reduce Friendly Fire
by tomatotomato37 on Friday April 02, 2021 @10:08AM
(#26671532)
The Bradley was such an atrocious design for it's intended purpose (an APC) that it managed to invent a new category of vehicle which turned out to be useful as a modern day cavalry.
Re:A Fatal Error Inspired a Plan to Reduce Friendly Fire
by p_l on Tuesday April 06, 2021 @06:21PM
(#26718099)
Except by the time Bradley design was finalizing towards prototypes, the new category was already defined. It was never supposed to be just another APC, because M113 was already known to be deficient, and the long and tortured process happened because Army didn't know the goal yet - and thus required exploratory work. And then BMP-1 kicked the anthill.
Re:A Fatal Error Inspired a Plan to Reduce Friendly Fire
by i80and on Friday April 02, 2021 @10:17AM
(#26671602)
I'm interested in hearing more about this: I greatly enjoyed The Pentagon Wars of course, but I haven't heard a defense of the Bradley's development process yet
Re:A Fatal Error Inspired a Plan to Reduce Friendly Fire
by p_l on Tuesday April 06, 2021 @06:26PM
(#26718153)
Some good material to follow, beyond the publicly accessible history of the project (which is long, since the fact that M113 was deficient was known before the final direction of the replacement was figured out), using somewhat popular formats:
https://old.reddit.com/r/WarCollege/comments/erpmjm/having_j...
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/truth-to-the-pentag...
And finally a bit on the background of the Fighter Mafia member who wrote the black PR book that was used as basis for the movie (PhD thesis on the Fighter Mafia/Reformers and their influence in decision making in both USAF and elsewhere):
https://krex.k-state.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2097/38768/...
Couple this with big name/external validation, and the fact that the best and brightest techs don't flock to the military (too dogmatic)...
The F35 is the new Bradley tank, and how much was spent?
Anyhow, you're probably correct, but I take exception to the reasoning being how much the military spent, or how long they worked at it.
(note: In times of war, all the political jockeying ends, disappears, and the military becomes lean and efficient. In times of peace, politics exist, including funding games.)