The Pentagon’s Biggest Boondoggles

[SouthernDZ]

Originally Posted by Ret10Echo

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.

[Ret10Echo]

Originally Posted by SouthernDZ

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.