Defense procurement

Five Myths About Pentagon Weapons Programs


There is an unfortunate array of mythological perceived wisdom in Washington about the development, testing, and production of America’s cutting-edge weapons. Here are five examples:

Myth 1: The defense acquisition system is broken. The United States has possessed the best-equipped military in the world for decades. The superior performance of its defense acquisition system helped bring the Soviet Union to defeat and allowed America to engage any adversary it has faced on conventional battlefields with decisive advantages. The defense sector of the U.S. economy has a strong positive trade balance largely because U.S. weapons are superior to those of our competitors.

Sustaining the U.S. position of military technological superiority over time requires that the acquisition system must take risk, and sometimes those risks result in cost overruns, schedule slips, and even canceled programs. This does not imply, however, that the system is broken. Creating a complex weapon system that is a generation more advanced than anything in existence is never a low-risk venture. That risk can be managed and mitigated, but it cannot be eliminated...