Something Has to Give

The DDX cost $3 billion, the Future Combat System $145 billion, and America's top fighter, the F/A-22 Raptor comes in a $330 million each. The cost of some of America's arsenal of super-weapons are more than many nations entire defense budget. At this rate according to this article from Times 7, "something has to give":

The U.S. is getting a quarter of the number of planes promised, at a price per plane almost ten times greater. And ballooning costs are a problem for all branches of the military.
The Navy once planned to build 24 DD(X) destroyers. Today, that number has dropped to five; the first two are estimated to come in at a cost of $6.3 billion, up $1.5 billion from last year's estimates.
The price has been driven upward by old-school politics and the rusty machinery of American shipbuilding. Part of the problem is a lack of discipline within the Navy's own design system. The DD(X) started out at about 8,000 tons; it's grown to 14,000 tons.
The Navy says it can make do with fewer big ships patrolling the oceans. It wants more fast boats and aircraft to fight offshore and upriver, a speedier force to counter terror. But Congress, seeking to sustain America's shipyards, wants as many big ships as possible.
Wheeler says the DD(X) is no longer a destroyer: "This is a very large surface combatant. It's not quite clear what its mission is, because it has so much stuff added to it."
The system, says Wheeler, is out of control "because nobody is controlling it."

There is good news: Thanks to this same high-tech arsenal, new weapons are being developed and fielded which are affordable and equally as effective as the gold-ticket super-weapons. Some like the Army's Stryker, is off the shelf; it was ordered and fielded in just a few years compared to decades for some weapons. The Navy's new littoral combat ship was laid down this year and expected to join the fleet late next year. UAV's, precision weapons, and other unmanned vehicles are being procured cheaper and more quickly than the traditional planes, tanks, and aircraft carriers and revolutionizing warfare.