Faulty Hardware

High bids and dud missiles

The Army's Sergeant York antiaircraft weapon, made to shoot down enemy helicopters, has proved a lemon. Known also as DIVAD (Division Air Defense), the system has two radar-guided guns attached to an M48A5 tank chassis. DIVAD has had trouble detecting decoys and hitting helicopters that do not have radar reflectors attached. Nonetheless, the Pentagon has invested $1.5 billion in 276 DlVADs, and last week Richard DeLauer, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, was preparing a report for Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger on whether to buy 117...

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