[UM-Bot]

Image credit: USAF

A newly released Defense Daprtment budget report has revealed that the Pentagon intends to spend more then $50 billion on classified projects next year, a three percent increase over the previous year's total.

"The Pentagon wants to spend just over $50 billion on classified programs next year, newly-released Defense Department budget documents reveal. “That’s the largest-ever sum,” according to Aviation Week’s Bill Sweetman, a longtime black-budget seer — a three percent increase over last year’s total."

View: Full Article | Source: Wired

[Bender.]

Anyone have any clue where all that money is going?

[Lt_Ripley]

to things we don't need.

but ...

Rare unity on overhaul of Pentagon contracting
By Dean Calbreath Union-Tribune Staff Writer

2:00 a.m. May 10, 2009




In these days of hyperpartisan bickering in Washington, it's rare to get a unanimous vote out of Capitol Hill, especially on issues as touchy as defense procurements and government spending.

But that happened last week as the Senate voted 93-0 on a bill that would overhaul the way the Pentagon buys its goods and services, in order to prevent hundreds of billions of dollars from being spent on weapons that don't meet military needs or projects that exceed their budgets.

The Senate action came just days after a report by the Government Accountability Office showed that the Pentagon's 10 biggest projects were running an average of 32 percent beyond their budget.

Among other things, the Senate bill would give actual combat commanders a bigger role in procurements, establish a procurement-monitoring office in the White House and set up new rules to block conflicts of interest involving the Pentagon's contracting consultants. .........

Early last week, the GAO found that nearly 70 percent of the Pentagon's 96 largest weapons programs were over budget last year, representing a total of $296 billion more than the original estimates. Research and development costs were 42 percent above estimates. The programs were an average of 22 months behind schedule, compared with 18 months in 2003.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., complained that such overruns “are draining our defense dollars and taking them away from other needed purposes.”

Arizona Sen. John McCain, the senior Republican on the committee, said the overruns are “really a situation of near-crisis proportions.” He said that with one or two exceptions, such overruns are associated with “literally every new weapon system that the Department of Defense acquires.”

Cunningham said that if the GAO estimate of 32 percent cost overruns on the top 10 projects is applied to military defense work in San Diego County, it would represent nearly $2.3 billion of the $7.1 billion worth of work performed here last year.

“That would have a big impact locally,” he said. “It certainly makes sense that the Pentagon should be monitoring those figures to make sure that the contracts are done as specified.”

One of the programs singled out in the GAO report was the Future Combat System, which has Boeing and San Diego's Science Applications International Corp. as the main contractors, with 550 subcontractors spread throughout 41 states.

The GAO said the program was first estimated to cost $90 billion. The current cost estimate is $130 billion, a jump of more than 44 percent.

FCS is the Army's most expensive and complex project ever, with the goal of using state-of-the-art information systems to coordinate the activities of U.S. forces on the battlefield, including unmanned vehicles. But there have been complaints about the cost of the system for at least four years.

A spokeswoman at SAIC said the company had no response to the charge of overruns, referring all questions to Boeing as lead contractor on the project. Boeing spokesman Matthew Billingsley said the cost increases were “due to adjustments in the scope of the program” and added that “we are successfully executing the FCS program to the Army's plan.”

On a percentage basis, the Future Combat System by no means had the worst overruns. The Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle had an overrun of $4.9 billion, putting it 168 percent above budget. For the V-22 Joint Services Advanced Vertical Lift Aircraft, the overrun came to $16.8 billion, or 186 percent above budget. A space-based infrared system had an overrun of 245 percent, for an additional $7.8 billion.

There are a variety of reasons for these overruns. Magee said some occur because military projects are poorly defined and then suffer from “requirement creep” – the addition of costly new requirements – as they proceed.

cont ..........

http://www3.signonsa...entagon-contra/


I think it all needs to be gone though with a fine toothed comb ... and wouldn't be surprised to see if we're still paying 100 $ for a damn toilet seat and 600 for a hammer.

[jbondo]

All those triangular craft that people are seeing? IMO many of those sightings are due to the unmanned X aircraft of which there are 2 models, that I know of. If anyone has further info, please by all means. In fact it is also my opinion that at least 75% of UFO's are in fact man made craft.

[REBEL]

Bender. on May 10 2009, 12:07 AM, said:

Anyone have any clue where all that money is going?

The Black Budget is highly classified in a Gray Area at the moment...

[Blueguardian]

I thought they would have been in recession too, oh wait they are. Hang on I'm confused now.

[v0dkacomrade]

This always cracks me up that people want to criticize the US government and what they spend on "black" programs, especially in times of "recession". You have to consider how economic, military and geopolitical strategy work. Say your a much smaller adversary, like al-Qaeda, and have to resort to dishonorable means of fighting like terrorism, IEDs, etc, against a much bigger military opponent like the US and its allies...when would you choose to go at them...when their economy is in great shape or when it is in bad shape and they can't afford to give everything to the military that they need? If you can find a way to also spread an economically weakened opponent thin, by for instance setting up terrorist organizations in as many different parts of the world as possible, you stand a better chance (not that I want them to, but that's the cold hard reality of what al-Qaeda and organizations like them are doing). And on a related note, why is Russia being resurgent? Because the US and its European, Middle Eastern, and Asian allies are all economically "down" right now and they "see" an opportunity to reassert themselves (I wonder what Russia's exact military spending is at right now? Up last I heard...and that's does not include their "black programs" I guarantee you!) . The phrase "kick them when their down" is very applicable here. Look at what's happened to the British troops in Afghanistan...and ALL of the complaints about them being underfunded and undersupported in the field - it's really sad and disgusting to see what's happening sending them out unprepared like that - even if its only in "isolated" cases...even one is too many. Also keep in mind, the US is the ONLY country in the world where it's military "projects" are constantly documented in open media and discussed publicly to some degree - maybe not in complete gory detail because at least SOMETHING is kept classified (as it SHOULD be) but nonetheless they are. Does no one remember what happened when people blabber mouthed SEAL team operations in Panama? They got killed. And when CNN was there was troops were landing in Somolia? That was disgustingly stupid on CNN's part and the military for even letting them around - that got people hurt and killed too on both sides thanks to the "media". Ever read Popular Science or other space, science, or technical engineering rags or sites for example? Intelligence agencies around the world read those all the time, especially scientific and technical journals of other countries, it's for intelligence analysis - NOT recreational reading! Ever read JANES? And the budget? Far as I am concerned, that's giving away too much. No one should know that except those who NEED TO KNOW. You can reasonably estimate with published economic numbers and some other things you may already "know", what's being worked on and what's not...it's all the part of the intelligence puzzle that one country can use to piece together to figure out what another country is working on. Every country does this every day, even allies towards one another. Try this approach of "openness" on military spending with China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, or even major European military powers like Germany, France, or the UK...and you won't get squat out of them or you'll get purposefully misleading info (which yes, the US does mis- and disinformation to some degree). I think there's good reason to not disclose absolutely everything. I do love the country I live in, and I'd like to continue to have a good country to live in despite it's flaws like any country has. Giving away the farm only feeds the enemies of the nation...and people who are enemies of the United States are typically those who would love to see democracy go away, and sites like this banned and dismantled. In the end, be careful what you wish for.