Gates details $100 billion in defense cuts

[maddezmom]

Source: WaPo

By Dana Hedgpeth
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Tuesday laid out details of his plans to save $100 billion in five years as he tries to run the Pentagon more efficiently.

Pentagon spending has doubled, when measured in current dollars, in the past decade but its budget is expected to grow only slightly each year over the next decade.

Gates announced new guidelines, which signal a shift in how the Pentagon buys goods and services with the goal of continuing to save costs. The guidelines push for more "fixed price incentive fee" contracts, which typically require a supplier to take the hit for cost overruns but also reward the contractor for meeting a project's cost targets. Under the new guidelines, stricter rules won't allow expensive weapons projects to go forward if they don't stay within projected costs.

Money saved by cutting overhead and inefficient costs on weapons programs will go toward modernizing and recapitalizing military equipment and sustaining troops, officials said.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/14/AR2010091406909.html

[msongs]

1. article clearly states there is NO NET MONEY being saved - just a liar's shell game -

"Money saved by cutting overhead and inefficient costs on weapons programs will go toward modernizing and recapitalizing military equipment and sustaining troops, officials said"

military lies and propaganda as usual from the Cheney pentagon

[bossy22]

4. are they really lies?

i mean how much longer can we fly fighters that are 30 years old and had an original lifespan of 20 years? How much longer can we still use military equipment that was procured in the 80's? The answer is not much longer. instead of a steady state (but smaller) procurement throughout the 1990's, we procured almost nothing- now the bill is coming due- all our equipment is in need of replacement- and all at the same time

[MH1]

5. and building the new stuff would provide a lot of jobs

assuming we even know how to make the stuff here anymore.

[xchrom]

2. It'll be interesting to see what actually happens. Nt

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. $20B a year.

Whoop-dee-fucking-doo.

:eyes: