Military Plans Too ‘Optimistic’ Gao Says Pentagon Wants $335 Billion For New Planes

The Cold War may be over, but the Pentagon still plans to build or upgrade 8,499 warplanes at a cost of $335 billion over the next few years, an effort likely to blow future budgets, a General Accounting Office study warns.

Suggesting that some major military aircraft programs should be terminated or scaled back, the GAO said the Pentagon needs to take a “realistic” look at what it can afford.

That analysis by the nonpartisan congressional investigative agency spotlights a spending squeeze that has drawn increasing criticism in Congress and among private analysts.

Facing tight future budgets, Pentagon planners have ducked tough choices on which weapons should be favored. Instead, they have penciled in plans for 17 different aircraft that would cost more than was spent on aircraft at the height of the Cold War.

The Pentagon “needs to bring its aircraft investment strategy into line with more realistic, long-term projections of overall defense funding,” the GAO said. “Difficult decisions will need to be made about restructuring or terminating some programs.”

Pentagon program plans are “often optimistic and rarely achieved,” the GAO analysts noted. They said many programs don’t perform as scheduled and end up billions of dollars over budget.

Among the programs the GAO evaluated were the Air Force’s F-22 stealth fighter and C-17 airlifter, the Marines’ tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey, and the proposed joint strike fighter, which is expected to cost $145 billion.

The report also mentions the F/A-18E/F SuperHornet, the Army’s Comanche attack helicopter, the Apache Longbow attack chopper, and the C-130 airlift and cargo planes.

Although not directly evaluating each program’s chances for coming in on time and on budget, the GAO said plans to upgrade the SuperHornet, a McDonnell Douglas aircraft produced in St. Louis, should be canceled. It said the F/A-18E/F would provide only “some improvements” over the current Hornet.

The GAO also said the F-22 program should be delayed until Lockheed Martin proves that the program is viable. It noted that there has been a history of cost growth on the program and some congressional concerns about whether the aircraft is needed when compared to the expected threat.