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When
The Ripon Forum contacted me to write an essay that
identified five
Defense
Department
programs to
eliminate, I
suppressed my
immediate
reaction:
Only five??
Sadly, America’s
defenses are
festooned with
programs that
should be
eliminated;
however, killing
them all off –
many more than
just five – will
do very little
to solve our
problems. To
fix the problem,
we must first
understand its
basic nature:
The U.S. today
spends more in
inflation
adjusted dollars
than it has
since the end of
World War II.
For all this
money, we get
the smallest
combat forces we
have had at any
time since
1946. The Army
has fewer combat
formations than
at any time in
this period.
The Navy has
fewer
combatants, and
the Air Force
has a smaller
number of
fighter and
attack
aircraft. Our
major weapons
are – on average
– older than at
any time since
1946, and we
routinely send
units into
combat with less
training than we
have in the
past.
With all this
considered, it
is not enough to
simply unload a
few ultra high
cost,
underperforming
mountains of
unreliable
complexity that
the Pentagon,
Congress, and
defense
manufacturers
today palm off
as weapon
programs. To
end the
widespread decay
within the
Defense
Department, what
must first be
eliminated are
not bad
programs, but
bad habits. In
keeping with the
original
editorial
request, here
are:
1.
Underperforming,
“white tower”
weapons at
unaffordable
cost. The
“next
generation”
combat aircraft,
the F-22 and the
F-35, are
classic
examples. In
terms of
aerodynamic
performance,
both are huge
disappointments,
and in some
respects even a
step backwards.
For their
reputation as
“wonder
weapons,” they
rely on a
hypothetical
construct of
air-to-air
warfare (“beyond
visual range”
engagement with
radar directed
missiles) that
has failed time
and time again
in real war.
Even the
so-called
“affordable”
F-35 is, in
truth,
completely
unaffordable.
Now at $121
million per
copy, it is only
beginning its
flight testing –
the stage where
cost growth
really starts to
show up.
At $355 million
per copy, the
F-22 bypassed
affordability
about $300
million ago.
Two peas in the
same pod, both
aircraft are an
embarrassment.
The thinking
behind them,
which ignores
the lessons of
combat history
and the dictates
of common sense,
needs to be
rooted out.
“To end the
widespread decay
within the
Defense
Department, what
must first be
eliminated are
not bad
programs, but
bad habits.”
2.
Unaccountable
finances.
For decades,
the Pentagon has
not just failed
audits; it has
been
unaccountable.
Most DOD
components
literally cannot
trace the
billions
appropriated to
them. In
response, the
Department and
Congress
exempted DOD
from the
statutes,
including the
Chief Financial
Officers Act of
1990, that seek
to force
compliance with
the norms of
financial
accountability
in the private
sector and even
the rest of
government.
Those exemptions
must be
repealed.
3.
Whistleblower
intimidation.
One of the
effects of the
new National
Security
Personnel System
established
under former
Defense
Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld has
been to make it
easier for
Pentagon
managers to fire
employees.
While there is
surely
bureaucratic
deadwood to
unload, this new
system also
facilitates the
firing of people
exposing stupid
– and worse –
behavior by DOD
managers.
Whistleblowing
is essential to
keep the
building
honest. Such
people who help
identify crooked
and wasteful
decisions should
be encouraged,
not intimidated
– which is why
this personnel
system should be
heavily
modified, if not
eliminated.
4. Bad
managers.
Exemptions from
accountability,
approval of
unrealistic cost
and performance
promises,
harassment of
informed
dissent, and
more do not
happen on their
own; they
require bad
managers.
Secretary of
Defense Robert
Gates set an
excellent
example when he
fired the
Secretaries of
the Army and the
Air Force and
the Chief of
Staff of the Air
Force for
cause. He needs
to greatly
expand that
practice. For
example, any
program manager
running a
program that
cannot pass an
audit should be
relieved.
5. Decimate
the FYDP.
The Pentagon’s
long range plan,
the Future Years
Defense Program
(FYDP),
anticipates
today’s spending
levels to
continue
indefinitely.
More money has
made us smaller,
older, and
weaker, and the
expectation of
continued riches
only defers the
hard decisions
we need to
reform.
Budget
reductions on
the order of 10
percent per year
for several
years into the
future can make
us stronger, not
weaker, but we
need to observe
the principles
addressed here.
Finally, in
their original
editorial
request,
The Ripon Forum
also asked for
one program or
one thing that
we needed more
of at the
Defense
Department.
Without
question, that
one thing would
be “oversight.”
Right now, the
advocates of
business as
usual lack any
sense that
others are
looking over
their shoulder,
will catch the
screw ups and
the corruption,
and will react
accordingly.
Any sense of
informed,
scrupulous,
truth-telling –
Harry Truman
style – is
completely
missing in
Congress and all
too rare inside
the Pentagon.
Adult
supervision, and
a sense that it
is everywhere,
can work
wonders.
--###--
Winslow T.
Wheeler is
Director of the
Straus Military
Reform Project
at the Center
for Defense
Information.
Previously, he
worked for 30
years on Capitol
Hill for
Republican and
Democratic
senators and for
the Government
Accountability
Office. He is
the editor of a
new anthology,
“America’s
Defense
Meltdown:
Pentagon Reform
for President
Obama and the
New Congress.” |
