The Pentagon’s Inspector General has found that the Defense Department’s activities to combat weapons of mass destruction have been splintered and uncoordinated among about 40 separate offices and commands. The situation is such, states the IG, that officials cannot tell for sure what the billions of dollars in expenditures are accomplishing and whether “US interests are protected” or America “can properly respond to attack.” So writes the Deseret Morning News, citing a sanitized copy of an IG report, dated March 30, 2007, that it just obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The report called for improved management, citing the lack of a lead office to coordinate WMD initiatives. The newspaper says Pentagon officials are now taking steps to improve coordination as a result of the report.
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.