Citing a doubling in the last five years of planned investments in
weapons systems without an increase in stability, better outcomes
or more buying power for the acquisition dollar, the Government
Accountability Office has said the Pentagon has trouble distinguishing
what it wants from what it needs.
It said even while the nation already will not be able to sustain
DoD’s currently planned level of investment in weapons systems —
and while programs routinely experience cost overruns, missed
deadlines, and performance shortfalls — DoD plans to increase
investments in weapons systems that enable the transformation of
various military operations.
DoD is not positioned to deliver high-quality products timely and
efficiently, costs often increase by hundreds of millions of dollars,
schedules are delayed for years, and some programs are scrapped after
failing to achieve promised capability, according to GAO-06-585T.
It said the department has tried to work best practices into its
policies and more discipline into setting requirements, but that
acquisition problems will continue until DoD provides a better
foundation for buying the right things correctly.
That involves making tradeoff decisions for programs that should or
should not be pursued, ensuring programs are executable within budget,
locking in requirements at the beginning, making clear who is
responsible for what and holding them accountable, the report said.
It said those changes would require the Pentagon to re-examine its
entire acquisition process, especially requirements-setting, funding,
and execution, as well as change the perception about what level of
achievement qualifies as “success.”
