U.S.M.C. G/ATOR Suffers Cost Increase

(MoneyWatch)  The Ground/Air Task Order Radar (G/ATOR) is a new ground based air search radar and related command and control equipment that the Marine Corps is purchasing to replace systems that are over twenty-five years old. The G/ATOR system is being developed by Northrop Grumman and utilizes Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar technology. The radar will have increased capabilities and will be integrated with the other services systems to provide data to support air operations and air defense capabilities. The Department of Defense on March 4th announced that a contract modification had been awarded to the contractor team for about $40 million. This money is due to a cost overrun associated with completion of the program. In 2007 the company received a contract for development and demonstration of the system with a quantity of fifteen to be built. This was for about $250 million dollars. The next step for the program is its Critical Design Review (CDR) planned for March. The first increment of the program seems to be planned for completion in 2012. This looks like a significant increase in the total cost of this part of the program especially considering the number of unit being purchased. This provides yet another example of how hard it is to predict schedules and cost estimates for even what seem like strait forward systems.