70% of Pentagon's arms buying deals are over budget

[ck4829]

Nearly 70 percent of the Pentagon's 96 major weapons-buying programs were over budget in 2008 for combined cost growth of $296 billion above original estimates, congressional auditors said in an annual report released on Monday.

The total estimated development cost for 10 of the largest acquisition programs, commanding about half the overall arms- purchasing dollars in the portfolio, has shot up 32 percent from initial estimates, from about $134 billion to more than $177 billion, the Government Accountability Office said.

The two largest programs -- Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft and the Boeing Co-led Future Combat Systems Army modernization -- "still represent significant cost risk moving forward" and will dominate the portfolio for years, the survey said.

Ashton Carter, the Obama administration's choice to become the Pentagon's top arms buyer, told his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday he would go program by program to crack down on cost overruns if confirmed.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090330/ts_nm/us_arms_usa_audit

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. Oh, that's OK. Geithner has the printing presses running.

[pauldp]

2. Thanks. Shocking. Lets hope Ashton Carter follows through.