LockMart Whistleblower: Vindicated!

Two years ago ex-Lockheed Martin engineer Michael DeKort, in a bout of frustration, posted a video on Youtube accusing his former employer of cutting corners on the electronics suites for 123-foot patrol boats for the Coast Guard — allegations that have since been proved by leaked Coast Guard documents. Today DeKort continues to hound the defense industry and the Coast Guard for wasting billions of dollars on the Coast Guard’s badly-managed, poorly executed "Deepwater" family of ships and aircraft.

It’s been a tough fight for DeKort. But last week he was finally formally recognized for his labors. Representative Elijah Cummings, chairman of the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, presented DeKort the Society on Social Implications of Technology’s [IEEE] public service award. Said Cummings of DeKort:

When he saw faulty equipment being installed on the 123-foot patrol boats by Lockheed Martin, his employer, he took his concerns up the entire chain of the company’s ethics department, and he eventually took his concerns to the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General and even to the Internet. His persistence helped get critical information on the 123s into the hands of our Committee and this information formed a central part of our 10-hour hearing on the Deepwater program.

Through his actions, Mr. DeKort embodied dedication to excellence. … In addition to bringing to light information on faults within the 123s, I am certain that another result of Mr. DeKort’s action and of the Congressional oversight that it helped spur has been to improve the management of the Deepwater program, and to lead to the imposition of more rigorous standards for the equipment purchased under the program. …

The Coast Guard and the [Lockheed and Northrop Grumman] team are now taking great pains to ensure that the new National Security Cutter – the most expensive asset to be procured under Deepwater – is rigorously tested before the government takes delivery of this asset. The Coast Guard has also announced that it will take the lead systems integration function back in house rather than leaving it with private sector contractors.

Like previous winners of the Barus award, Mr. DeKort’s commitment to excellence came at a cost to him personally, and yet it was a cost that he was willing to bear to do what he believed was right. Had everyone involved in the Deepwater program approached the program with the same commitment Mr. DeKort brought, we would not have had the failures in the program that we have experienced.

In closing, I also applaud IEEE for giving this award today, and for their work to recognize integrity in public service. It pains me deeply that our country has come now to tolerate mediocrity, for mediocrity threatens our greatness as a nation.

Kind words, but Cummings perhaps speaks too soon. While the Coast Guard has learned lessons from the investigations DeKort helped launch, one of those lessons was how to cover its ass. If rumors are true, the service is considering rejecting the first of the 300 400-foot National Security Cutters — the future crown jewels of the Coastie fleet — because Northrop and Lockheed botched the design, construction and electronics all while insisting that everything was just dandy (pdf!).

But the Coast Guard is just as guilty. For years it let industry run its modernization programs while the service sat back and pretended that there wouldn’t be problems. Rejecting the cutter, DeKort says, is the Coast Guard’s way of distancing itself from the coming programmatic meltdown.