US defence companies need to focus more on ensuring the reliability of new weapons systems rather than just lauding their superior capabilities, Navy Secretary Donald Winter told Reuters on Wednesday.
Winter, a former defence industry executive, cited several examples in which newly developed weapons were plagued by reliability issues, including a broken stern gate that caused a 48-hour delay in the deployment of the new San Antonio amphibious ship built by Northrop Grumman Corp.
Winter, a former Northrop executive, said the new ship was "under way, finally," and that the delay was part of an overall shake-down for the ship that was taking longer than he wished. Work on another amphibious program, the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle being developed for the Marine Corps by General Dynamics Corp, had to be slowed down because it was not meeting the Navy's reliability targets, Winter said.
"Having performance is important, but not as important in most cases, as having reliability," said Winter, who displays a Soviet AK-47 Kalashnikov rifle in his office because he says it symbolises the importance of weapons that actually work.
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