Reform Pentagon Acquisition By Slowing Down the F-35

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Ashton Carter, the incoming next defense secretary, agree on one thing – the need for acquisition reform at the Pentagon. They should start by looking at the F-35 program.

McCain, in his opening remarks at Carter’s confirmation hearing last week, provided a litany of examples of major programs that had incurred huge cost overruns, from a new aircraft carrier to the F-35 combat aircraft. His basic message was that if the Pentagon doesn’t change the way it buys weapons, it won’t matter how much money it gets.

Carter, for his part, decried the Pentagon’s penchant for “cost overruns, lack of accounting and accountability, needless overhead and the like.”

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