A new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) warned on Thursday that the costs of the Pentagon's arsenal could soar by hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade.
The Pentagon has said it is building more than 70 major weapons systems at a cost of at least US$1.3 trillion. But the Pentagon generally understates the time and money spent on weap-ons programs by 20 percent to 50 percent, the new report said.
A survey of 26 major weapons systems showed cost overruns of US$42.7 billion, or 41.9 percent, in their research and development phase.
Last year, the overall projected cost for those same 26 systems rose US$68.6 billion, or 14.3 percent, to US$548.9 billion, from US$480.3 billion in the last 12 months.
A wider assessment of 54 major weapons systems showed that a majority are costing more and taking longer to develop than planned.
While Defense Department officials questioned details of some assessments of the major weapons systems, they did not dispute the report's overall conclusions.
The Government Accountability Office, the nonpartisan budget watchdog for Congress, singled out several programs.
The research and development costs for the army's Future Combat Systems, a program to build 18 sets of networked weapons and military robots for 15 combat brigades, have increased 51 percent in the last year, the report said. Army officials say the program could cost as much as US$145 billion, or US$53 billion more than first advertised.
The Joint Strike Fighter program, which is supposed to build 2,458 planes for the air force, navy, marine corps and US allies, will cost US$244.8 billion, or about US$99.6 million for each aircraft, the GAO reported this month. Four years ago, the program was supposed to cost US$183.6 billion for 2,866 planes, or about US$64 million each.
The F-22 fighter jet program will cost US$63.8 billion for 178 aircraft, or more than US$356 million a plane, the office reported earlier this month. Twenty years ago, when the program began, the Air Force planned to buy about 760 F-22's at US$35 million each.
A set of five surveillance satellites, called the Space-Based Infrared System-High, will cost US$9.9 billion, not US$3.9 billion as originally planned eight years ago, an increase of US$1.2 billion a satellite, according to the report.
The report also pointed to a Navy missile called the Extended Range Guided Munition. The program began seven years ago. Still in the test phase, it has cost US$598.4 million. Seven years ago, it was supposed to produce thousands of weapons at a cost of US$45,000 each. Today the price per missile is estimated at US$191,000.
The GAO, in scores of reports produced since the end of the Cold War, has consistently explained why so many weapons cost so much more than promised.
"Performance shortfalls, schedule delays and cost increases," the office has said, are "the logical consequences" of the weapons-buying culture.
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