The programs in development today, including the B-21, Constellation-class frigate, and F-47 will move into full-rate production in the next decade or two. If policymakers gut the FAR and cost accounting standards, they will all but guarantee that the costs to buy and sustain new programs will require annual military budgets that dwarf this year’s trillion-dollar-plus spending plan.
Pentagon officials are racing to meet tight deadlines to overhaul the weapon acquisition system, prescribed by the White House in two executive orders issued in April. But their haste should not obscure the likelihood that the Trump administration is ushering in a new era of overpriced weapons—and missing the larger point, to boot.
The Pentagon’s acquisition woes are primarily a programming problem rather than an issue with how the department purchases weapons. Congress and the Pentagon order more weapons than the defense industry can produce, which contributes to cost and schedule overruns. To make matters worse, companies use their free cash to line shareholders’ pockets instead of investing in production capacity, all while crying poor to lawmakers.
Due in part to these dynamics, the Congressional Budget Office projects that annual acquisition spending from 2025-29 will be about 9 percent higher, in real terms, than from 2001-24. White House officials blame “onerous bureaucracy.” They propose eliminating or exempting weapons manufacturers from broad sections of the Federal Acquisition Regulation, which they say will unleash manufacturers to produce more weapons faster and at a lower cost.
Read the full article on Defense One.
The programs in development today, including the B-21, Constellation-class frigate, and F-47 will move into full-rate production in the next decade or two. If policymakers gut the FAR and cost accounting standards, they will all but guarantee that the costs to buy and sustain new programs will require annual military budgets that dwarf this year’s trillion-dollar-plus spending plan.
Pentagon officials are racing to meet tight deadlines to overhaul the weapon acquisition system, prescribed by the White House in two executive orders issued in April. But their haste should not obscure the likelihood that the Trump administration is ushering in a new era of overpriced weapons—and missing the larger point, to boot.
The Pentagon’s acquisition woes are primarily a programming problem rather than an issue with how the department purchases weapons. Congress and the Pentagon order more weapons than the defense industry can produce, which contributes to cost and schedule overruns. To make matters worse, companies use their free cash to line shareholders’ pockets instead of investing in production capacity, all while crying poor to lawmakers.
Due in part to these dynamics, the Congressional Budget Office projects that annual acquisition spending from 2025-29 will be about 9 percent higher, in real terms, than from 2001-24. White House officials blame “onerous bureaucracy.” They propose eliminating or exempting weapons manufacturers from broad sections of the Federal Acquisition Regulation, which they say will unleash manufacturers to produce more weapons faster and at a lower cost.
Read the full article on Defense One.
