The Cost of Negligence in Government Contracting

By: Mikko Cain

In my current role, I have the opportunity to work as an engineer for the US Army’s Ground Vehicle Robotics branch. On one of the Army’s robotic platforms, a vendor had included an end-of-life product as part of the design. The inclusion of this product had left the platform with several vulnerabilities that would jeopardize operations in an actual theater of war. It was a surprise to me, as I would have thought a well-seasoned vendor who has had years of experience in government contracts would have known better than to include an end-of-life product in their design. The ramifications of this mistake have resulted in costly corrective actions and design changes that will influence multiple parts of the system.

With the complexity of robotic systems, it takes thorough due diligence to ensure the design is robust and free of vulnerabilities from multiple means of attack. The lack of foresight and thorough design reviews can not only result in wasted time and money, but can result in endangerment of our customers. When the cost of our negligence could result in the deaths of the men and women who pledged to serve our country, scrutiny of our designs must be severe. We owe it to our service members to deliver designs and products that will guarantee victory on the battlefield and bring them home safely.  

This experience will stick with me for quite some time, and as I play an increasingly involved role in developing products for the government, I will make sure to perform the necessary due diligence so that I may not cause a similar issue. The designers of a system must have the initiative to go through their work with a fine toothed comb, for if these problems are discovered later they can have far reaching consequences.