Boeing asks $500M FIA termination fees (?)

This showed up in the Washington Aerospace Briefing on 31 Jan 2006
under the title "FIA's Termination Liability" and was picked up by
DefenseTech blog
(http://www.defensetech.org/archives/....html#comments):


Boeing: We Screwed Up, Give us $500 Mil

"When a child who is on trial for murdering his parents pleads for
leniency on grounds that he is an orphan, we call that chutzpah,"
says Space News' Washington Aerospace Briefing. "When a U.S.
defense contractor botches a program demands a huge termination
fee when the contract is cancelled, we call that... standard
operating procedure."

So no, we weren't completely shocked to hear that Boeing is seeking
about $500 million from the National Reconnaissance Office in
termination fees associated with the Future Imagery Architecture spy
satellite program. The NRO cancelled the optical portion of Boeing's
multi-billion dollar FIA contract last year after becoming fed up
with the company's technical struggles and that lead to innumerable
delays and soaring costs.

I have no reason to doubt this, but am always a bit nervous with a
single source. Has anyone here seen other mention of Boeing's request
for termination fees?

On 6 Feb 2006 12:40:52 -0800, in a place far, far away, "Allen
Thomson" made the phosphor on my monitor glow in
such a way as to indicate that:

Boeing: We Screwed Up, Give us $500 Mil

I have no reason to doubt this, but am always a bit nervous with a
single source. Has anyone here seen other mention of Boeing's request
for termination fees?

No, but like you, I have no reason to doubt it. What does Boeing have
to lose? Worst case, they get laughed at. Best case, a stupid
bureaucracy gives them the money.

Rand Simberg wrote:
On 6 Feb 2006 12:40:52 -0800, in a place far, far away, "Allen
Thomson" made the phosphor on my monitor glow in
such a way as to indicate that:

Boeing: We Screwed Up, Give us $500 Mil

I have no reason to doubt this, but am always a bit nervous with a
single source. Has anyone here seen other mention of Boeing's request
for termination fees?

No, but like you, I have no reason to doubt it. What does Boeing have
to lose? Worst case, they get laughed at. Best case, a stupid
bureaucracy gives them the money.

Ah, but Boeing knows the bueacracy has a lot to lose too. If they get
entirely stiffed, Boeing can sue, and the NRO, which is accustomed to
having its lapses in competence hidden from the light of day by
classification, will find its shields stripped in the public court
battle.

NRO knows that it is equally culpable with Boeing for the FIAsco, since
its people were right in there promising to meet everybodys
requirements at the same time Boeing was promising the impossible.

http://www.defensetech.org/archives/002142.html

For those tuning in late, the best intro to FIA I could quickly find
was:

http://www.thebulletin.org/article.p...=jf03richelson

Particularly interesting is the fact that commercial imagery is
proving to be helpful in (partially) filling the gap between Advanced
KH-11/Onyx and FIA. The irony of course is that for a time these
commercial satellites were considered inimical to national security.