Pentagon Plans Undermined by Chronic Delays, Cost-Overruns, Insufficient Industrial Capacity

For years, Congress has approved increasingly large defense budgets that include billions of dollars in annual allocations for arms and armaments procurement, shipbuilding, and research and development of new weapon systems. In return for these billions, American taxpayers receive only millions back in the form of new arms, ships, and weapons systems each year. This inefficient cycle subverts national security and must end, a bipartisan chorus of House Appropriations Committee critics demanded during a defense budget hearing on April 17. The Department of Defense (DOD) is “plagued by bureaucracy,” mired in regulatory minefields, and addled by antiquated acquisition systems where “zombie programs” subsist while innovations wither in “death valleys,” they told Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs Chair Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown during a 150-minute hearing on the Pentagon’s proposed $895.2 billion defense budget request for Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25)....