|
 McCain, who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee, told
Reuters in a statement that he welcomed the Navy's decision to order
an independent review of the long-delayed Remote Minehunting System,
or RMS, being developed for a new fleet of littoral, or coastal,
warships.
The system has been in development for nearly 17 years, with more
than $700 million spent to date and $868 million earmarked for
production of 54 vehicles in coming years.
McCain and other lawmakers say the system is not reliable enough.
They want the Navy to look at alternatives before starting a series
of operational tests that would pave the way to production.
McCain said he expected the reviewers to "fully explore" concerns
raised by Michael Gilmore, the Pentagon's director of operational
test and evaluation. Gilmore said the Navy inflated operating time
estimates for the Lockheed system by counting hours of analysis time
when it was not in the water.
 In an August memorandum, Gilmore said the system was breaking down
after every 18.8 to 25 hours of use, far short of the Navy's 75-hour
requirement.
Navy officials said they ordered the review of the RMS and its core
Remote Multi-Mission Vehicle (RMMV) after its poor performance in a
technical evaluation that ended Aug. 30.
"While the RMS has demonstrated the ability to meet operational
requirements, reliability performance has not been acceptable during
the most recent technical evaluation," said Navy spokeswoman Captain
Thurraya Kent. She said the independent review will look at possible
alternatives.
Lockheed says the system's mean time between failures is far higher
at 117.3 hours, well above the required 75 hours, and it is working
with the Navy to improve maintenance procedures.
Company spokesman Keith Little acknowledged challenges encountered
during the evaluation, but said the system exceeded or met key
performance parameters during a development test in early 2015.
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He said each RMMV mission took the place of five to six conducted by
other unmanned vehicles, and the vehicle operated in rough weather
or high seas that would hamper or prohibit other minehunting
methods.
"Alternatives would take up to five years and significant investment
to ... achieve the performance demonstrated by RMS using RMMV
today," Little said.
Defense Undersecretary Frank Kendall assured McCain in a letter
dated Oct. 8 that the department would not allow further production
of the Lockheed vehicle until the review was completed in November.
A copy of the letter was seen by Reuters.
McCain, a Republican, and Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the
committee, raised concerns about the program in a letter to Kendall
in August. They said "too much is at stake to accept the status quo
and permit systems with long documented cost, schedule, performance,
and reliability shortfalls to get a free pass into the fleet and
production."
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by David Gregorio)
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