Reading Between the SAR Lines

Reading Between the SAR Lines: The Pentagon’s recently released Selected Acquisition Report cited cost growth for 36 programs, as measured against new rules mandated by Congress in the 2006 defense authorization act. What are these new rules? According to Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), House Armed Services Committee Chairman, DOD must now report the cost growth for major programs not only in relation to original cost estimates but also to revised cost estimates. To rate a “critical” status, a program will have exceeded either 50 percent of its original estimate or 25 percent of its current (revised) estimate. A program would be deemed to have reached “significant” cost growth if it exceeds 30 percent of its original or 15 percent of its current estimates. Hunter says that these changes provide “warning lights in the system to show when costs are escalating rapidly.”