Congress Moves to Ban Lead System Integrator (LSI) Procurement

The latest defense authorization bill bans lead LSI contracts:

2008 defense authorization bill includes a provision -- section 802 -- that would prohibit the Defense Department from awarding new contracts for lead systems integrator functions beginning Oct. 1, 2010. The bill also would place an immediate ban on such arrangements for programs that are not yet in low-rate initial production.

This may seem to be a bit esoteric, but the basics of the LSI arrangement are the idea that the system is so complex that the military cannot contract management and oversight, so it gets handed off to a Lead Systems Integrator.

Shorter version: Fox, here are the key to the hen house.

The results:

• FCS:

The outcome has been less than impressive. In 2003, when the LSI contract officially kicked off, Future Combat was meant to be a $92 billion effort; today, that figures stands at $200 billion, minimum -- and maybe more than $230. An operating system that was supposed to require 33.7 million lines of code is now estimated to be 63.8 million lines big. "They're getting to the point they should've been in 2003," Francis noted.

• Coast Guard Deepwater Project:

Hull cracks, bad wiring, insecure network, and (of course) over budget.

• Air Force Transformational Satellite:

  Shrinking performance, the LSIs refusing to verify program requirements , and (of course) over budget.