A Look At The Pentagon's $1.5 Trillion Procurement Program

Pentagon Buys Weapons Like It’s Fighting Two Wars in 2004 -- Timothy R. Homan, The Fiscal Times

Two steps forward, one step back. That pretty much sums up the Defense Department’s weapons procurement programs last year, judging by a recent report from the Government Accountability Office.

The Pentagon reduced its number of major acquisition programs from 85 to 80 last year. It also increased its cost control for 60 of those programs, saving $23 billion in the process. The downside, though, is that acquiring all of the weapons in the $1.5 trillion portfolio went up by an estimated $14.1 billion.

“While a large number of programs did reduce [their] cost over the past year, the need for continued oversight and cost management remains, as many programs are still not achieving the long-term targets for limited total acquisition cost growth,” U.S. Comptroller Gene Dodaro wrote in a letter to Congress. “With the decline in the availability of discretionary funding, DOD cannot afford to miss opportunities to address inefficiencies in these programs to free up resources for additional high-priority needs, such as support of current operations.”

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