The U.S. Navy announced Dec. 18 that Lockheed Martin's Remote Minehunting System (RMS) program has triggered a Nunn-McCurdy cost/schedule breach notification.

The company's RMS is to be deployed on the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) as part of the mine countermeasures missions (MCM) module. It comprises a Remote Multi-Mission Vehicle (RMMV), its launch-and-retrieval system, the RMMV-towed sonar sensor and advanced communications equipment and software. The RMMV portion is the one that has run afoul of Nunn-McCurdy regulations.

According to the Navy, the RMS program manager notified leadership of the increases in procurement costs in November. Average procurement unit costs for the RMMVs are $12.7 million, approximately 51.8 percent greater (in 2006 baseline dollars) than the original baseline; and procurement acquisition unit costs are about $22.4 million, 85.3 percent greater than the original baseline estimate.

The Navy attributed cost increases primarily to the decision to eliminate the RMMV from the LCS anti-submarine warfare mission package, reducing the overall inventory objective quantity from 108 to 54. Additionally, a portion of the breach is being blamed on additional funding required to incorporate reliability modifications into the RMMV. Growth in RMS reliability was identified as a key need during developmental testing, which demonstrated that while RMS meets 8 of 9 key performance parameters, the operational availability is not met.

In the Pentagon's Fiscal 2008 annual report from its director of operational test and evaluation, the RMS was cited for "reliability and availability [that remains] below requirements established by the Navy." The recommendation at the time was for the Navy to "formally revise RMS requirements if necessary" and revise the test and evaluation master plan for the program.

The Navy has said it will "work closely with [the Pentagon acquisitions team] throughout the Nunn-McCurdy certification process."

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