Stiletto, the Office of Force Transformation’s (OFT) effort to design and build a high-speed vessel made of composite materials for Special Operations Forces (SOF), is undergoing acceptance trials this month, after successfully completing builder’s trials in February, according to the co-owner of M Ship Co., the boat’s builder.

“We are very, very pleased with the way it’s been going. We’ve already exceed 50 knots and we had the boat out in sea state four,” Bill Burns, co-founder and executive director of M Ship Co., told Defense Daily in a recent telephone interview.

“The typical design process would start with doing preliminary design, some testing, evaluations…that can last up to five years from concept to getting something into the water,” Burns said. “Today you just don’t have that time because if you start designing something for a threat you perceive today, I guarantee you in five years that threat is not going to be there.”

M Ship Co. was tasked with developing a new technology, which would include a new hull form, carbon composite construction, and OFT wanted to have something ready for evaluation in a year, he added.

When the company wanted to charge ahead with some ideas, and implement them, the government, because of its aversion to risk wouldn’t allow it, according to Burns. “The government has such a culture that’s adverse to risk, and I think it’s a real problem.”

“To be able to manage and develop new concepts within the government you need to change the culture because there is no incentive now for designers or managers to take any kind of risk at all. In fact, it’s the opposite, if you take risk you are punished,” he said. “That was a challenge for us. I think it’s a cultural issue in the government. There are some areas where you need to mitigate the risk as much as possible, but as far as developing new ideas and new concepts you need to be able to take a risk to have a breakthrough.”

Yup.