It's not a new phenomenon. As long as there have been military forces, there have been failures of procurement systems to supply combat forces in a timely fashion. General George Washington pleaded with Congress to provide more and better cannonballs and muskets. The US Defense Acquisition System (DAS) continues to fail despite multiple schemes to rectify the inability of the Defense Department to provide weapons, equipment, and services on time. Enter President Donald Trump, who has made it a priority to streamline the DAS during his term in office.
President Trump Seeks Defense Department Reforms
Trump issued two sweeping executive orders aimed at reforming the Pentagon in the way it does business. But what does "reform" look like when so many weapons programs are underwater? For example, the Columbia-class submarines are not meeting cost, schedule, and contract expectations. Consequently, a Government Accountability Office observed:
"Our independent analysis calculated likely cost overruns that are more than six times higher than Electric Boat's estimates and almost five times more than the Navy's. As a result, the government could be responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in additional construction costs for the lead submarine."
But the Columbia-class submarine program doesn’t even rate as the primary poster child. That honor goes to the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (Sentinel Intercontinental Ballistic Missile program) in development to replace the aging 1970s Minuteman III nuclear ballistic missiles. "In January 2024, the Air Force informed Congress that the Sentinel program exceeded its initial cost projections, posting at least a 37% increase (from $118 million initial baseline cost to $162 million in 2020 dollars) in the cost per unit," according to a current Congressional Research Service report.




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