Murphy's Law: Over-Promise but Under-Deliver
June 26, 2023: An old American problem, defense projects that are completed over budget and late, has proved impossible to eliminate. A recent assessment of 36 defense acquisition projects revealed that their costs had increased over the last two years by $37 billion and most were late as well. A study of dozens of lesser projects showed the same problem with being over budget and late.
In 2010, 98 major American military procurement projects were $402 billion over budget and, on average, 22 months late. Some 40 percent of the cost overruns are the result of suppliers submitting unrealistically low bids for new weapons, and then coming back for more and more money as "unforeseen problems" appear and costs keep escalating and delivery delayed. This has come to be called "lowballing." Currently, procurement of weapons and major equipment make up about a third of the defense budget. While this is expected to decline over the next decade, as defense budgets shrink, the problem also extends to upgrades and refurbishment of existing equipment.
The military goes along with the lowball angle because it makes it easier to get Congress to approve the projects. Once a new project is in the military budget for a few years, it is very difficult to get it canceled. Since Congress has a short memory, the military does not take much heat for this never ending "lowball" planning process.
https://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htmurph/articles/20230626.aspx
