Weapons cost overruns

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Saturday, April 5, 2008 | 2:06 a.m.

A new federal audit shows that the Defense Department’s weapons acquisitions are, for the sixth year in a row, billions over budget and years behind schedule.

The report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, shows that the $1.6 trillion the government has spent on ships, aircraft, weapons systems and satellites is $295 billion over budget. And the delivery of these items is two years behind, on average, the GAO says.

For example, the GAO cites the Navy’s $5.2 billion Littoral Combat Ship project. The cost of the first two ships is expected to be more than twice the $472 million budgeted.

Such cost overruns and delivery delays have been documented in the GAO’s analyses of selected weapons acquisitions in each of the past six years. Yet, GAO auditors say, the Defense Department has yet to make marked improvements.

“It’s not getting better by any means,” Michael Sullivan, director of the GAO’s acquisition and sourcing team, told The Washington Post. In fact, Sullivan said, the process is “taking longer and costing more.” Part of the problem is that there are more projects than there is money, Sullivan said. And many of the technologies are not ready to go into production, and the systems take too long to design, develop and produce.

Certainly, our military needs the best equipment and weapons the nation can provide. But the Pentagon should get a handle on its spending by working harder to stay within its budget and setting budget projections that are more realistic.