Lockheed Martin finally admitted that their almost $30 million unmanned prototype aerial vehicle (UAV) P-175 Polecat crashed at the Nevade Test and Training Range in December. And they only had one prototype...
Lockheed Martin disclosed that the cause of the crash was "an irreversable unintentional failure in the flight termination ground equipment, which caused the aircraft's automatic fail-safe flight termination mode to activate." Translated (loosely) into layman's terms: "some jackass on the ground pressed the wrong button. Oops!" Lockheed Martin also said that the flight termination system performed exactly as expected, causing the crash. Um, really, Captain Obvious?
So it's back to square one for the Polecat program...
[Check out the Danger Room post for their hilarious take on the matter...]
Sources:
WIRED Blogs: Danger Room [Oops! I Blew up the Secret Drone!]
Aviation Week: Polecat Crash Sets Back LM UAV efforts
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