The Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon was put on show on the National Mall in Washington in 2008.
Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
The Big Take
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Cost overruns and a culture of risk aversion underscore the problems at the Pentagon.
It was envisioned as the centerpiece of a $200 billion program revolutionizing how the US Army would fight. Now it’s languishing in storage in Virginia, a 25-ton symbol of the malaise that lies at the nexus of the Pentagon and the defense industry.
The Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (NLOS-C), a self-propelled 155mm howitzer on tank tracks, was integral to Army plans to develop the kind of high-tech system that would help offset the numerical advantages of a peer like China or Russia in a future conflict.