Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) believes the Pentagon over the past two years has strayed from its long-run effort to introduce stability in major acquisition efforts by laying out procurement plans for USAF’s new F-22A stealth fighter that “have been anything but stable.” At a March 16 House Armed Services subcommittee hearing on tactical air, Chairman Weldon asserted in his opening remarks that the 2007 budget proposal deviates “significantly” from what Congress had expected last year. He wanted answers to how the new plan would “affect Air Force capabilities, costs of F-22s, and the industrial base that supports this production.”
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
