Arizona Daily Star March 24, 2008
Funds cut off to Raytheon for Navy project
Ship-based munition was 12 years in planning, failed critical field tests
By Jack Gillum
The U.S. Navy has cut off funding for a Raytheon Missile Systems program because of its failures in field tests, halting the 12-year-old effort.
The decision to cut the Extended Range Guided Munition is a setback for Southern Arizona's largest employer, which has grown fast in recent years. Raytheon developed the product to be fired accurately from a ship dozens of miles away to support troops on the ground.
February, the guidance system, rocket motor and tail fins all flunked demonstration tests at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The Navy has spent more than $600 million on the project thus far. These were the latest in a series of failures.
Raytheon blames sporadic funding from the government for the ERGM's being cut.
"It's undergone requirements changes and, frankly, has received an inconsistent level of funding," spokesman John B. Patterson said Sunday.
He said about 40 people work on the program. Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems has about 12,500 full-time-equivalent positions in Southern Arizona, according to the Star 200 survey of major area employers for 2007. It grew by about 12 percent last year.
The ERGM has been cited by critics as not living up to its capabilities. When the Navy launched the ERGM program in 1996, it was billed as a precision-guided replacement for the big 16-inch guns of battleships.
With a range of about 55 miles, the rocket-assisted ERGM was to use a combination of Global Positioning System satellite guidance and inertial navigation to hit within 65 feet of a target, according to Raytheon and the Navy.
By contrast, the battleships' 16-inch Mark 7 naval guns could lob shells weighing a ton or more about 24 miles, with an accuracy of a couple of hundred meters.
"It's basically one-bullet, one target," John E. Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, told the Arizona Daily Star in 2005. "That just completely alters what you can do with artillery."
At that time, program delays and cost overruns had already put Raytheon's bid to reshape the future of naval artillery in jeopardy.
The Government Accountability Office in March 2005 issued a report stating that seven of ERGM's 20 "critical technologies" were not mature. As of mid-2004, the Navy had spent $598 million on the ERGM program, the GAO said. The Navy has estimated each ERGM round initially would cost about $50,000, though that cost could decline in production.
Raytheon said Sunday it is "suspending work" on ERGM, although it had not received official word from the Navy on the future of the program.
"Additional funds are not going to be applied to the contract," Navy spokesman Lt. John Schofield said in a statement.
Raytheon also develops the Excalibur projectile for the Army, which is similar to ERGM and which Raytheon has called its "sister" munitions program.
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