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| Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter introduces Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, during a press briefing to announce the award of the long range strike bomber contract in the Pentagon, Oct. 27, 2015. During her comments, James stated that we need to invest the right people, technology, capability, and training to defend the nation and its interest--always with affordability and tight budgets in mind. (U.S. Air Force photo/Scott M. Ash) |
The contract from the US Air Force was awarded to Northrop Grumman, who beat out Lockheed Martin and Boeing to build a bomber that is not expected to be operational until the 2020s. The current estimated cost for the bombers is $564 million each (and you can expect that number to go up).
The onerous budget commitment comes while the US is in no danger whatsoever of losing air supremacy, and has no serious peer competitors in the space. No other country is even within striking distance of US bomber technology, and the US is already spending more than the combined military spending of China, Russia, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Saudi Arabia, India, Germany, Italy and Brazil.
So why commit to an $80 billion bomber? Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the bomber will form “the backbone of the Air Force’s future strike and deterrence capability.” Chief of Staff for the Air Force, General Mark Welsh, went on to say, “We have committed to the American people to provide security in the skies, balanced by our responsibility to affordably use taxpayer dollars in doing so. This program delivers both while ensuring we are poised to face emerging threats in an uncertain future.”
Beyond the contradiction of ensuring you can face an uncertain threat, is the ridiculous claim that DoD is affordably using taxpayer dollars. The Pentagon is incredibly wasteful and financially mismanaged, and has been unable to even audit its own books for over 20 years.
In 2002, then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld publicly admitted that, “According to some estimates, we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions.” It was also reported at the time that DoD could not account for as much of 25% of the funds it was spending, something that there is no evidence to suggest was ever remedied.
This was all before the Pentagon started dumping piles of cash into the F-35 financial black hole, wacky surveillance blimps, and now an $80 billion “next generation” bomber. At some point, the US military-industrial-congressional complex is going to have to accept it’s running an arms race with itself.
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https://shadowproof.com/2015/10/28/pentagon-commits-to-doling-out-80-billion-for-another-bomber/
The War On Waste $2.3 trillion
On Sept. 10 2002, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared war. Not on foreign terrorists
, "the adversary's closer to home. It's the Pentagon bureaucracy," he said.
He said money wasted by the military poses a serious threat.
"In fact, it could be said it's a matter of life and death," he said.
Rumsfeld promised change but the next day – Sept. 11-- the world changed and in the rush to fund the war on terrorism, the war on waste seems to have been forgotten.
Just last week President Bush announced, "my 2003 budget calls for more than $48 billion in new defense spending."
More money for the Pentagon, CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzalesreports, while its own auditors admit the military cannot account for 25 percent of what it spends.
"According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions," Rumsfeld admitted.
$2.3 trillion — that's $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America. To understand how the Pentagon can lose track of trillions, consider the case of one military accountant who tried to find out what happened to a mere $300 million.
"We know it's gone. But we don't know what they spent it on," said Jim Minnery, Defense Finance and Accounting Service.
Minnery, a former Marine turned whistle-blower, is risking his job by speaking out for the first time about the millions he noticed were missing from one defense agency's balance sheets. Minnery tried to follow the money trail, even crisscrossing the country looking for records.
"The director looked at me and said 'Why do you care about this stuff?' It took me aback, you know? My supervisor asking me why I care about doing a good job," said Minnery.
He was reassigned and says officials then covered up the problem by just writing it off.
"They have to cover it up," he said. "That's where the corruption comes in. They have to cover up the fact that they can't do the job."
The Pentagon's Inspector General "partially substantiated" several of Minnery's allegations but could not prove officials tried "to manipulate the financial statements."
Twenty years ago, Department of Defense Analyst Franklin C. Spinney made headlines exposing what he calls the "accounting games." He's still there, and although he does not speak for the Pentagon, he believes the problem has gotten worse.
"Those numbers are pie in the sky. The books are cooked routinely year after year," he said.
Another critic of Pentagon waste, Retired Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan, commanded the Navy's 2nd Fleet the first time Donald Rumsfeld served as Defense Secretary, in 1976.
In his opinion, "With good financial oversight we could find $48 billion in loose change in that building, without having to hit the taxpayers."
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©MMII, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved
He said money wasted by the military poses a serious threat.
"In fact, it could be said it's a matter of life and death," he said.
Rumsfeld promised change but the next day – Sept. 11-- the world changed and in the rush to fund the war on terrorism, the war on waste seems to have been forgotten.
Just last week President Bush announced, "my 2003 budget calls for more than $48 billion in new defense spending."
More money for the Pentagon, CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzalesreports, while its own auditors admit the military cannot account for 25 percent of what it spends.
"According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions," Rumsfeld admitted.
$2.3 trillion — that's $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America. To understand how the Pentagon can lose track of trillions, consider the case of one military accountant who tried to find out what happened to a mere $300 million.
"We know it's gone. But we don't know what they spent it on," said Jim Minnery, Defense Finance and Accounting Service.
Minnery, a former Marine turned whistle-blower, is risking his job by speaking out for the first time about the millions he noticed were missing from one defense agency's balance sheets. Minnery tried to follow the money trail, even crisscrossing the country looking for records.
"The director looked at me and said 'Why do you care about this stuff?' It took me aback, you know? My supervisor asking me why I care about doing a good job," said Minnery.
He was reassigned and says officials then covered up the problem by just writing it off.
"They have to cover it up," he said. "That's where the corruption comes in. They have to cover up the fact that they can't do the job."
The Pentagon's Inspector General "partially substantiated" several of Minnery's allegations but could not prove officials tried "to manipulate the financial statements."
Twenty years ago, Department of Defense Analyst Franklin C. Spinney made headlines exposing what he calls the "accounting games." He's still there, and although he does not speak for the Pentagon, he believes the problem has gotten worse.
"Those numbers are pie in the sky. The books are cooked routinely year after year," he said.
Another critic of Pentagon waste, Retired Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan, commanded the Navy's 2nd Fleet the first time Donald Rumsfeld served as Defense Secretary, in 1976.
In his opinion, "With good financial oversight we could find $48 billion in loose change in that building, without having to hit the taxpayers."
ΠΗΓΗ
©MMII, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved
Copyright 2002 CBS. All rights reserved.
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