DoD report: $58 billion wasted in canceled weapons

[Geee]

Washington Examiner:

The Pentagon has spent at least $58 billion over the past two decades on weapons systems that seemed like a good idea at the time, but never made it off the ground, or even off the drawing board.

 

The eye-popping figure is buried in a Pentagon report released this week from Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Frank Kendall.

 

The internal review of the Defense Department's acquisition performance contains a chart of 23 big-ticket weapons programs that were started, initially funded, and then canceled after billions were spent going back to 1997.

 

The biggest boondoggles were the Army's ill-fated Future Combat System, which accounted for more than $20 billion of the total, and the RAH-66 Comanche reconnaissance/attack helicopter on which $9.8 billion was invested before the plug was pulled.