How bad were the 'Naughts' (as in '00 decade) for the US government's weapons systems? The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments attempts to answer this question with a table showing the major programmes canceled since 2001 (see page 36). In total, the Department of Defense invested $46 billion on 12 canceled programmes, CSBA says.
As bad as this list seems, I can think of several others that also didn't make it. Who can forget the Northrop Grumman E-10A multi-sensor command and control aircraft (MC2A)? Dead. Anybody remember the B-52 stand-off jamming system (SOJS)? Buried. Or the air force's stand-in jamming system -- to be performed by its version of the Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) programme? Mostly dead. The X-47 lives as a demonstrator, and the X-45C is on life support as the Boeing Phantom Ray.
- Future Combat Systems - $18.1 billion sunk
- Comanche - $7.9 billion sunk
- NPOESS - $5.8 billion sunk
- VH-71 -$3.7 billion sunk
- Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle - $3.3 billion sunk
- Transformational satellite - $3.2 billion sunk
- Crusader - $2.2 billion sunk
- Advanced SEAL delivery system - $600 million sunk
- Armed reconnaissance helicopter - $500 million sunk
- Aerial common sensor - $400 million sunk
- CG(X) next generation cruiser - $200 million sunk
- CSAR-X - $200 million sunk
As bad as this list seems, I can think of several others that also didn't make it. Who can forget the Northrop Grumman E-10A multi-sensor command and control aircraft (MC2A)? Dead. Anybody remember the B-52 stand-off jamming system (SOJS)? Buried. Or the air force's stand-in jamming system -- to be performed by its version of the Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) programme? Mostly dead. The X-47 lives as a demonstrator, and the X-45C is on life support as the Boeing Phantom Ray.
Recent Comments