The Defense Department is doing what a top official once warned against--using anticipated efficiency savings to fund weapons systems, said Todd Harrison, a senior fellow in budget studies at Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, during a Feb. 10 DoD budget press briefing at CSBA offices in Washington, D.C.

Harrison cited a report by Robert Hale, now Undersecretary of the Defense (Comptroller), who as a think tank analyst in 2002 wrote that the Pentagon "should avoid using efficiency savings to fill budget shortfalls until the savings are actually realized."

Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced an efficiency initiative in 2010 that seeks to redirect overhead spending into higher priority programs such as the next-generation jammer, long-range bomber and surveillance aircraft, according to a CSBA report.

Through a number of proposed efficiency strategies, DoD expects to save enough money to warrant further investment of $90 billion, Harrison wrote in the report.

Harrison also wrote that new, high-profile projects have a history of failing because acquisition and the requirements development process are disconnected from the budget process. This recurring and chronic disconnect has not been addressed due to recent budget constraints and puts the reinvestment projects at further risk of failure, he added.

Pressure to reduce the federal deficit has grown and legislators refuse to consider revenue increases, through taxation. "This means the deficit reduction efforts in the near future are likely to focus almost exclusively on reductions in government spending," Harrison wrote.

For more: 
- see the CSBA backgrounder (.pdf) 

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