Pentagon spending on major weapons systems has rocketed to $1.6 trillion, a two-decade high, with programs going over budget
and falling behind schedule, a
government audit found.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said 72
programmes, ranging from fighter jets to combat ships and satellites, were over budget by $295 billion in 2007 and behind schedule by an average of 21 months.
The spending on new weaponry continued to rise despite funding competition from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and a decline in discretionary spending in other areas of the US government budget, the GAO said.
Defence Department (DOD) investment in weapons systems doubled from $790 billion in 2000 to $1.6 trillion last year, the GAO said in its sixth annual report on the department’s acquisitions programme. While acquisition costs were six per cent higher than original estimates in 2000, they were 26 per cent higher last year, the report said.
Moreover, research and development costs were 40 per cent over budget in 2007. The cost overruns will be difficult to sustain as the weapons programmes face stiff competition for funds from the wars as well as non-military programmes such as social security, the GAO said.
The Pentagon plans to invest about $900 million over the next five years on development and procurement, including more than $335 billion, or 37 per cent, for new major weapon systems, the report said. “Every dollar spent inefficiently in developing and procuring weapon systems is less money available for many other internal and external budget priorities — such as the global war on terror and growing entitlement programmes (such as social security),” Gene Dodaro, the GAO’s acting comptroller general, said in the report delivered to Congress on Monday.