Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has recommended the creation of an independent cost assessor for major Department of Defense weapons programs. During a hearing of the committee June 3 with John Young, the Pentagon’s acquisition czar, Levin said a fundamental change is needed in DOD’s acquisition culture. He cited a new Government Accountability Office report that finds that cost estimates on 95 major defense acquisition programs in Fiscal 2007 had grown by nearly $300 billion, or 120 percent, over their initial projections. (Click here for GAO’s report.) In current dollars, he said, this amount would suffice to buy 500 F-35 stealth fighters at $100 million each, two aircraft carriers, eight Virginia-class submarines, 500 V-22 tiltrotor aircraft, and 10,000 mine resistant ambush protected vehicles—and amazingly, still leave enough left over to cover the Army’s entire $130 billion Future Combat Systems program. Accordingly, Levin said he plans to introduce an amendment to the Fiscal 2009 defense authorization bill that would establish a “director of independent cost assessment” within DOD with authority and responsibility similar to the director of operational test and evaluation. Young reacted tentatively to the proposal (see below).
Lt. Gen. Stephen L. Davis, the Department of the Air Force’s top internal watchdog, has been nominated to lead Air Force Global Strike Command, which oversees the service’s bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles.