By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces
Press Service
WASHINGTON -- Air Force leaders are taking a more critical eye
in weighing the technological capabilities of new systems
against their corresponding cost, the Air Force's top military
officer said here May 21.
"We have had a temptation to
design and try to build the most exquisite systems, and we've
proven we can do that," Air Force Chief of Staff Gen.
Norton Schwartz said during remarks at the Center for Strategic
and International Studies here.
Ultra-capable,
sophisticated, and correspondingly expensive, weapons and other
military-related systems "may have a place in certain
instances," General Schwartz said. But building "too much
capability" onto some military platforms may be unnecessary and
it drives up procurement costs, he added.
"My
observation is we went way over," General Schwartz said of some
military procurement programs, "on trying to build too many
things on the same 'bus,'" or platform.
President Barack
Obama and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates are seeking to rein
in rising defense procurement costs. Some proposed fixes include
more supervision of the acquisition process, including better
definitions of exactly what capabilities are needed, with an eye
toward controlling cost-overruns when a project is predicated on
new, but untested and expensive, emerging technologies.
For example, General Schwartz said, the Air Force's
sophisticated, multi-billion dollar Transformational Satellite
Program, or TSAT, was cancelled because of its exorbitant cost.
Instead, Air Force officials decided to purchase two existing,
proven, and less-expensive satellite systems to do the job.
"But the truth is that TSAT was a $20 billion program,"
Schwartz said.
The axed satellite system offered "an
exquisite platform," he said, but it was simply too expensive.
The less-costly legacy satellites won't be as
technologically "nifty" as the TSAT, General Schwartz
acknowledged, but on the other hand, they're "not bad" and will
perform the mission.
And "there's going to be a lot more
of 'not bad,' than there is of 'wow,'" General Schwartz
predicted, regarding the Air Force's acquisition process.