Chad Irby wrote in message m...
(Tony Williams) wrote:

Chad Irby wrote:

Part of that "cost effectiveness" appeared to be a lowball pricing
structure that fell through on closer examination.

Do you have a source to support that? You may be right, but I like to
work on hard info rather than forum gossip.

This talks about the cost issue:

http://stage.defensedaily.com/VIP/ddi/previous/ddi0927.htm#A1

"We had a cost-growth problem that forced a recompetition," he said.
"Affordability is a prime concern of the program. Based on that we were
forced to recompete the gun system integration. We selected our
supplier on a best-value case."

Thanks for that link. I had to smile at: "GD had initially offered its
GAU-12 25mm gatling cannon for the JSF in July 1999, but withdrew its
proposal in February 2000." since that was only after L-M had selected
the BK 27 - in the UK, we call that 'spin'

A "cost-growth problem" for an established weapon like the Mauser means
"they tried to stick us for some more cash after they got the contract."

The usual response in that case is to tell the supplier to keep the
price down or lose the contract. With a potentially huge market for
the F-35, Mauser would have to have been mad to throw it away. There
is no inherent reason that I am aware of that the BK 27 should have
been more expensive to make than the GAU-12/U, particularly since both
would have been made in the USA (unless they're planning to save money
on the initial batch by re-using guns from the AV8-B). I remain
suspicious that GD was both the gun integrator and the supplier of the
GAU-12/U; they weren't exactly innocent bystanders.

Tony Williams
Military gun and ammunition website: http://www.quarry.nildram.co.uk
Discussion forum at: http://forums.delphiforums.com/autogun/messages/