Air Force and Army officials confirmed at a House appropriations subcommittee hearing that the services could be short of funds to cover implementation of all BRAC 2005 actions—the gap could be as much as $10 billion. The Air Force estimates it is short by about $2 billion. However, William Anderson, Assistant Secretary for Installations, said he believes the Air Force can reduce that to much less by identifying ways to cut costs—or “scrubbing”—individual projects. Anderson expressed confidence that the service could “pull the remaining gap together” or would somehow “find the money.”
The emphasis on speed in the Pentagon’s newly unveiled slate of acquisition reforms may come with increased near-term cost increases, analysts say. But according to U.S. defense officials, the new weapons-buying construct provides the military with enough flexibility to prevent runaway budget overruns in major programs.
