'Pentagon's F-22 Plan Is Not a Recipe for Stability'

Posted on: Mar. 20th, 2006 || Source: dc01-cdh-afa03.tranguard.net | E-mail Article | Print Article

'Pentagon's F-22 Plan Is Not a Recipe for Stability'

Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) believes the Pentagon over the past two years has strayed from its long-run effort to introduce stability in major acquisition efforts by laying out procurement plans for USAF's new F-22A stealth fighter that “have been anything but stable.”

At a March 16 House Armed Services subcommittee hearing on tactical air, Chairman Weldon asserted in his opening remarks that the 2007 budget proposal deviates “significantly” from what Congress had expected last year. He wanted answers to how the new plan would “affect Air Force capabilities, costs of F-22s, and the industrial base that supports this production.”

Too many programs are being initiated with unrealistic program cost and capability projections and
we continue to pay an ever increasing price for this failure of process. Too often Milestone B entry
requirements are also being waived with costly program impacts later in the process. And too often
concurrent R&D and procurement schedules are permitted -- again, with costly consequences. As the GAO
points out: “Over the past five years, the Department has doubled its planned investments in new weapon
systems from $700 billion in 2001 to nearly $1.4 trillion in 2006. At the same time, research and
development cost growth on new weapons continues to be about 30 to 40 percent.”

PDF: Weldon's Full Statement

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