By Emelie Rutherford
The Pentagon’s top weapons buyer continued to admonish Northrop Grumman‘s [NOC] Global Hawk aircraft effort for cost increases yesterday, telling lawmakers it is a prime example of a program that needs to be more productive.
Ashton Carter, the under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics, joined other senior military officials in describing–and, at times, defending– Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ efficiency efforts to the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC). Gates’ four-pronged Pentagon cost-savings plan is intended to free up overhead costs within a fiscally constrained defense budget so those monies can be spent on war-fighting and modernization needs.
While the SASC hearing did not delve much into specific weapons programs, Carter seized on a question from Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) about unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to emphasize his frustration with the RQ-4 Global Hawk reconnaissance drone.
The Pentagon and Air Force have conducted a “should-cost” review of the over-budget effort to buy 77 UAVs, some of which are now in Afghanistan and Iraq. Some lawmakers have pushed back on Air Force plans to buy the most-advanced Block 40 Global Hawks.
Northrop Grumman, for its part, said it is looking at ways to lower the price of the aircraft in the wake of the Pentagon cost-saving efforts (Defense Daily, Aug. 25).
“That is a program whose cost has been growing, and I think unnecessarily so,” Carter told Nelson about the Global Hawk yesterday. “So that is one where we are intent upon restoring what I referred to…as productivity growth. I have very good cooperation from those who were performing the work, who recognize that the cost has been growing. This is an important program to us. We can’t allow ourselves to manage it in a way where it becomes unaffordable.”
Carter said Global Hawk is a focus of his “managerial attention at the moment.” He called it an example of a program where the Pentagon goes to Congress “with exactly the same thing every year, and asking for more money for it.”
In general, Cater said the Pentagon “must achieve what economists call productivity growth, and what I’ve called learning to do more without more: delivering the program the department needs and the warfighter needs for the amount of money we’re going to get.” While military officials saved money in the defense budget last year by canceling “unneeded programs,” Cater said the Pentagon’s focus now should be on such productivity growth.
Still, Carter said, “we’ll do more of” the program cancellations, without elaborating further.
Perhaps the most contentious part of the wide-ranging SASC hearing dealt with Gates’ proposal to shutter U.S. Joint Forces Command in Suffolk, Va.
SASC member Jim Webb (D-Va.) accused the Pentagon of stonewalling Virginia politicians’ attempts to learn more about the rationale behind the attempt to close the command.
Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn testified that Gates determined the command was redundant after as many as 30 meetings with senior military advisers. He promised to arrange a meeting with Pentagon and Virginia officials.
Webb, a former Navy secretary, complained that Lynn notified him about the JFCOM plan 15 minutes before Gates announced it on Aug. 9.
Webb said he filed an amendment to the defense authorization bill yesterday that would compel the defense secretary to “provide detailed analysis and other assessments that we have requested before the president would close or align any unified combatant command, not simply JFCOM.”
Webb received some support from SASC Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.). In general, Levin said, Gates “has a legitimate objective of eliminating or consolidating repetitive and overlapping organizations within the department, and his determination to cut costs and produce efficiencies is commendable.” But, Levin said, “it appears that there was inadequate analysis and inadequate openness in the procedure which preceded his August announcement.
SASC Ranking Member John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he “strongly support(s)” closing JFCOM.
Obama has not yet supported or rejected Gates’ recommendation to close JFCOM.
The House Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing today on the Pentagon efficiency initiatives with the same three witnesses: Cater, Lynn, and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Gen. James Cartwright.