Defense Costs Out of Control

Terry Pudas is interim director of the Pentagon's Office of Force Transformation. In a recent conference he had this to say about spiraling defense expenditures:

"We can no longer live with programs that take decades to develop," Pudas told defense and aerospace industry executives and investors attending a conference yesterday at the Coronado Island Marriott Resort.
"We don't want to be adversaries with industry," Pudas said in an interview following his luncheon speech. "But at the same time, we want to address some of these issues to the betterment of our national security."

As an example he gives the Navy's newest warship project, the DDX destroyer:

At a time when at least 80 countries possess anti-ship cruise missiles, Pudas said military planners are questioning the rationale for building a new fleet of Navy destroyers at a cost of $3.2 billion apiece.