The C-5 Reliability Enhancement and Re-Engining Program is going to break the Nunn-McCurdy 15 percent cost overrun rule requiring a report to Congress, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said yesterday at AFA’s Air & Space Conference in Washington. The only reason the Air Force hasn’t made the notification to Congress is that it can’t settle yet on just how much of an overrun there is, he noted. A top USAF official reported a $6 billion difference of opinion between Air Force and Lockheed Martin cost estimates. Wynne said he’s asked the Pentagon’s Cost Analysis Improvement Group to help narrow the estimates, and Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley, who joined Wynne in a press session, said part of that effort will be to get agreement on basic assumptions. “We’re going to let Lockheed have their best shot to convince us” that their numbers are accurate, Wynne said, but even using the most optimistic assumptions, there will be a Nunn-McCurdy breach.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth vowed to undertake far-reaching reforms on the way the U.S. military buys weapons, promising a sweeping overhaul of the way the Defense Department determines requirements, handles the acquisition process, and tests its kit. The fundamental goal, which Hegseth underscored in a 1-hour and 10-minute speech…
