Pricing czar pitched to rein in Pentagon

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By Rowan Scarborough THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The Pentagon is so awash in cost-bloated weapon systems that it now needs a pricing czar to double-check estimates that have missed the mark by a staggering $295 billion in just the past several years.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat, said Tuesday that the cost cop would "develop its own independent cost estimates to ensure that the information on which so many of our program and budget decisions is based is fair, unbiased and reliable." He said he will propose on the Senate floor legislation authorizing the post.

Mr. Levin commenced a committee hearing with the Pentagon's top weapons buyer to learn why next-generation systems such as the Navy-Air Force Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) and the Army's Future Combat System have ballooned in price collectively by nearly $80 billion.

Mr. Levin said he knows why. Pentagon cost estimators are putting initial price targets at unrealistic numbers. Program managers then are layering the systems with wish lists of futuristic gadgets that drive the prices even higher.

One example: The Navy said it would need $220 million to buy two Littoral Combat Ships. Auditors later found the price tag so overly optimistic that the cost doubled, and the Navy canceled the shipbuilding.

In all, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found earlier this year that 95 major weapons systems grew in cost by $295 billion, to a total $1.6 trillion.

Meanwhile, a private watchdog group, the Project on Government Oversight, released a leaked Pentagon document that showed major defense contractor Lockheed Martin does not follow proper guidelines for containing cost. Lockheed has the nation's two largest programs for combat aircraft: the F-35 JSF and the F-22 Raptor, a futuristic stealth fighter.

The memo from the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) said Lockheed's Fort Worth, Texas, division in 2007 failed to adhere to 19 of 32 industry standards. The memo for John Young, the Pentagon's undersecretary of defense for acquisition, said the lapse means Lockheed cost estimates are "suspect."

It also said Lockheed does "not provide the requisite definition and discipline to properly plan and control complex, multibillion dollar weapon systems acquisition programs."

Mr. Young told the committee that the Pentagon has imposed a 12-point corrective plan on Lockheed. The government can withhold $10 million in payments for each unmet milestone, he said.