Defense Secretary Robert Gates says that the Congressional Budget Office’s report estimating the cost of President Bush’s troop “surge” in Iraq “dramatically overstates” both the cost of the force increase and the number of personnel to be sent. According to Government Executive, he told reporters Friday that the Administration’s financial figures are only for the current fiscal year; CBO estimated the cost through 2009. Gates also said the increase would last for months rather than years.
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.