View Full Version : The Pentagon’s Biggest Boondoggles
John Arquilla, professor of defense analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School and author of “Worst Enemy: The Reluctant Transformation of the American Military.”
And so it goes...
Richard :munchin
The Pentagon’s Biggest Boondoggles
NYT, 13 Mar 2011
AS our government teeters on the brink of a shutdown, and Congress and the president haggle over spending cuts, the Pentagon budget should be scoured for places where significant reductions may be made. Not the handful of trims alluded to by Defense Secretary Robert Gates — $78 billion over the next five years, with these savings simply used to shore up spending on other acquisitions — but major cuts to systems that don’t work very well or that are not really going to be needed for decades to come.
Unworkable or unnecessary systems tend to have something in common: their costs are often uncontrollable. A 2009 Government Accountability Office study of 96 major defense acquisition programs found that almost two-thirds of them suffered major cost overruns — 40 percent above contract prices, over all — with average delays of nearly two years. Those overruns totaled close to $300 billion, about the amount of President Bill Clinton’s last full defense budget request a decade ago.
Listed below is just a sampling of what systems could be ended without endangering America; indeed, abandoning some of them might actually enhance national security. These cuts would generate only small savings initially — perhaps just several billion this fiscal year, as contracts would have to be wound down. But savings would swiftly rise to more than $50 billion annually thereafter.
And there’s plenty more where these came from.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/opinion/13arquilla.html?scp=1&sq=military%20boondoggles&st=cse
Professor Arquilla thinks the age of the aircraft carrier are gone. They cost too much money to build, too much money to protect, and can be defeated by new weapons the Chinese have built.
We spent alot of time in his class discussing this issue and he makes some very cogent points.
I always enjoy reading his articles. Thanks for posting Richard.
What does something truely cost? Why does an aircraft carrier cost so much.
Why on a contract is there cost overrun?
You say you can build a carrier to these specs by this date for X dollars then you produce that carrier by that date. Cost over runs are your problem and if its not done by the due date you pay a stiff penalty.
Government - you are not allowed any major changes that will greatly impact due date or cost - no changing major ship systems.
I seriously think the whole contacting - design - procurement - testing ball of tar thing has become a job security program.
Just look at the ACU problem. How much was wasted on that fiasco?
Marauder06
03-14-2011, 16:42
...
Just look at the ACU problem. How much was wasted on that fiasco?
I had the same thought when I read about the "female-specific" ACUs they're fielding now... aren't we phasing out the ACU?:confused:
greenberetTFS
03-14-2011, 17:16
What does something truely cost? Why does an aircraft carrier cost so much.
Why on a contract is there cost overrun?
You say you can build a carrier to these specs by this date for X dollars then you produce that carrier by that date. Cost over runs are your problem and if its not done by the due date you pay a stiff penalty.
Government - you are not allowed any major changes that will greatly impact due date or cost - no changing major ship systems.
I seriously think the whole contacting - design - procurement - testing ball of tar thing has become a job security program.
Just look at the ACU problem. How much was wasted on that fiasco?
Pete,I don't believe I could express it any better,your right on the money........;)
Big Teddy :munchin
Ballistic missile defense...bah, who needs it? The crazies can't reach us, and the big boys would overwhelm our defenses with the first salvo. Wait, what was that flash, and why won't my cell phone work anymore?
http://defensetech.org/2009/02/04/iran-launch-could-mean-emp-weapon/
Ret10Echo
03-14-2011, 17:58
What does something truely cost? Why does an aircraft carrier cost so much.
Why on a contract is there cost overrun?
You say you can build a carrier to these specs by this date for X dollars then you produce that carrier by that date. Cost over runs are your problem and if its not done by the due date you pay a stiff penalty.
Government - you are not allowed any major changes that will greatly impact due date or cost - no changing major ship systems.
I seriously think the whole contacting - design - procurement - testing ball of tar thing has become a job security program.
Just look at the ACU problem. How much was wasted on that fiasco?
Ahhh...but that estimate of cost for a Firm Fixed Price contract requires you (the Government) to develop a cost estimate....and where do those come from? Not a lot of stubby pencil work going on I am sure. ("Hey Bob, what did that last one cost? Ok, well how about 15% for inflation and 22% for materials...yeah...that's it")
Then forecast that cost out over 5-years (or longer), allow a multitude of people to add, take-away and modify the request, include a titanium flusher valve from Congressional District 27 and paint produced in a contract development zone at 5 times the going rate....
Yes, the risk should be placed upon the contractor (you bid it, you build it) but what exactly does one do with a partially completed aircraft carrier?
SouthernDZ
03-14-2011, 18:20
Ahhh...but that estimate of cost for a Firm Fixed Price contract requires you (the Government) to develop a cost estimate....and where do those come from? Not a lot of stubby pencil work going on I am sure. ("Hey Bob, what did that last one cost? Ok, well how about 15% for inflation and 22% for materials...yeah...that's it")
Then forecast that cost out over 5-years (or longer), allow a multitude of people to add, take-away and modify the request, include a titanium flusher valve from Congressional District 27 and paint produced in a contract development zone at 5 times the going rate....
Yes, the risk should be placed upon the contractor (you bid it, you build it) but what exactly does one do with a partially completed aircraft carrier?
Spent time planning out military construction; sometimes it goes like this: a MILCON project is costed out and bid in 1998 - you don't see the first brick laid until 2004 (no BS) and then it goes overbudget sometime in mid-2006.
I'm not one to defend defense contractors but I've been witness to their frustration.
Here is a novel idea. Give a company blueprints...
Where'd you get the blueprints?
blacksmoke
03-14-2011, 20:35
Where'd you get the blueprints?
Hopefully Toyota.
Ret10Echo
03-15-2011, 04:23
Spent time planning out military construction; sometimes it goes like this: a MILCON project is costed out and bid in 1998 - you don't see the first brick laid until 2004 (no BS) and then it goes overbudget sometime in mid-2006.
I'm not one to defend defense contractors but I've been witness to their frustration.
You are spot-on Southern. The cycle from plan to bricks can be so extensive that the original cost estimates are worthless... Not to mention the fact that when the project budget is reduced by 10% here and 20% there in some conference room, there isn't a holographic image that shows part of the buidling disappear as the numbers are reduced. But eventually you reach the PONR and there is partial "whatever" standing there...and somebody is going after over-guidance funds or raiding another project to get the thing complete.
All parties involved contribute to waste and overruns. The incremental funding over a 5 year period can blow up in your face pretty quickly. The Feds don't do project management very well just yet. Hopefully there is some serious belt-tightening and the bottomless suitcase-o-cash goes away and a little discipline is applied.
The solution isn't something that is necessarily cheaper...it's just smarter and less wasteful. Get the Pork/earmarks out of the appropriations and you have a big chunk of the waste removed.