Word: cheney
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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With the U.S. poised on the brink of war, it seemed an odd moment to shake up the nation's military-industrial complex. But that did not deter Defense Secretary Dick Cheney last week from canceling the Navy's A-12 Avenger attack bomber and sending military contractors the clearest signal yet that the Reagan-era good times are over. The old buddy-buddy relationship between the Pentagon and arms makers who blithely exceed contract costs and expect taxpayers to pick up the tab has ended...
...tough-minded Cheney shot down a program that had been expected to produce 620 of the high-tech stealth aircraft at a cost of $57 billion, he implicitly emphasized another military reality of the 1990s: the U.S. simply cannot afford many of the multibillion-dollar weapons systems that were started during Reagan's $2 trillion defense buildup and now continue to escalate in price...
...Cheney's abrupt action showed too that the shriveling of the defense budget is little affected by such immediate emergencies as a potential war in the Persian Gulf. For contractors, the long- and short-term trends are contradictory. As the developers of new weapons systems face increasingly tough times, suppliers who meet the needs of Desert Shield with such items as boots, camouflage netting and gas masks are enjoying an unexpected -- but presumably brief -- bonanza...
...Cheney reached his dramatic decision to scrap the A-12 after a tense six- hour debate in his Pentagon office. Navy Secretary Lawrence Garrett and his top acquisition officials tried to persuade the Defense Secretary and Joint Chiefs Chairman Colin Powell that the Avenger should be saved even though the program was running $2.7 billion over its fixed-price contract cost of $4.8 billion for development alone. It was also 18 months behind schedule...
...Navy suggested the usual fix. It would buy fewer planes than planned and stretch out the delivery dates. Cheney could ask Congress to provide $1.4 billion in extra costs; the two manufacturers, McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics, would then be covered and content. Development of the advanced plane could proceed. That was the way contractors and their military supervisors had long done business...