Press

The following is an excerpt from Jim Arkedis’s op-ed in Forbes online:

The infamous Iron Triangle of Pentagon spending has officially challenged Defense Secretary Bob Gates.  This week, the House Armed Service Committee approved its FY2011 budget authorization, which funds certain high-visibility weapons systems explicitly cut by Gates in this year’s budget request.

Here’s how this works.  The Secretary of Defense submits a budget to Congress every year.  Then, the military services essentially go behind the Secretary’s back and provide Congress with a list of “unfunded requirements,” a wish-list of weapons that the services want Congress to buy, but that the Secretary has chosen not to ask for.  Congress is all too happy to provide money for these systems of dubious strategic or tactical merit because politically savvy defense contractors fill campaign coffers and open offices in most districts.

As an example, the “alternate engine” for the Joint Strike Fighter (Lockheed Martin) has become this year’s poster child for unfunded requirements.  Gate’s budget request cut funding for one of the two engine designs under consideration — the F135 engine (Pratt & Whitney) was prioritized over the F136 engine (GE, Rolls-Royce).

Read the full column at Forbes.