By Andrea Shalal-Esa
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon's restructuring of a $30 billion program to develop advanced military radios is long overdue, but the project cannot be scrapped completely because it is vital for future warfighting, industry executives told the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit on Friday.
"It was a dream by some scientists in the Pentagon," Frank Lanza, chief executive of L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. (LLL.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), a key supplier for the Joint Tactical Radio System, told the summit in Washington via a conference call.
He said the Pentagon set far too ambitious goals for the project to give the military a new networked communications backbone, and industry promised more than it could deliver.
For years, the Pentagon "kept writing checks" because they lacked the people to adequately oversee such a complicated program, but now a restructuring was imminent, he said. "It's going to be scaled down to something that can be realistically accomplished in a reasonable period of time."
Clay Jones, chief executive of Rockwell Collins Inc. (COL.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), another key supplier for the program, said the program was imperative to the Army's Future Combat System program and the Pentagon's overall effort to modernize how it fights wars.
He said he was confident the contractors could still produce the needed software-based radios in time for scheduled fielding with the Army's Future Combat Systems, although he said restructuring was "the responsible thing to do."
"We have found that the technology is very difficult," he said.
Boeing Co. (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), General Dynamics Corp. (GD.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Thales SA (TCFP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) also have big stakes in the program. Continued...
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