Page 202 - MY STORY

Of the 4 companies bidding on that weapon program, we

ended up a distant fourth. It was sort of like 1,2,3 -------4.
Because of the loss, our senior management directed us to
stop development of the new material and structural

arrangement. We told our management to “leave us the
hell alone – if we could perfect the application of this new
material, we could become leaders in this technology

instead of ignorant losers.”

The program we lost was the very first-time MDAC had

ventured into stealth-like vehicles. Up till that point in
time our senior management dictated that missiles should

“look like missiles and be cylindrical in cross-section.”
Our senior management proclaimed that all that was
needed to ensure survivability was to “fly low and fast!”
MDMSC had a lot to learn to be “invited to the party of

advanced weapon systems.”

Our learning curve was very steep for the first couple of
years, and we began to capture contracted R&D and to
apply our capability to real-world systems successfully.

The beauty of having a wide variety of technical
disciplines co-located and learning to integrate
observables technology into their discipline was really

powerful. For a small group, with limited funding, we