In 2014, the Air Force estimated that its secretive Long-Range Strike Bomber program, likely to be labeled B-3, would cost approximately $33.1 billion from 2015 to 2024. This year, the Air Force has a new figure for fiscal years 2016 to 2026: $58.2 billion, an increase of 76 percent or $27 billion. And the Air Force hierarchy seems completely unfazed by this quantum miscalculation, reported the Washington Merry-Go-Round.
In fact, the service said the actual cost should have been $41.7 billion all along.
"There has been no change in the costing factors over the last two years... it was a mistake. It was a regrettable mistake. It occurred, in part, because of human error and, in part, because of process error, meaning a couple of people got the figures wrong and the process of coordination was not fully carried out in this case. The key thing is there has been no change in those cost figures," said Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James during a Pentagon press briefing, reported the Fiscal Times.
"We were surprised by the number when we saw it as well, once it had been pointed out to us that it looked like the number had grown, because we've been using the same number, it has not changed," said Gen. Mark Welsh, Air Force chief of staff, brushing off the mistake, reported the Daily Caller.
The lawmakers at Capitol Hill did not accept the explanation at face value with Rep. Jackie Speier of California demanding to know how the multibillion-dollar mix-up happened.
"This sudden 76 percent increase in estimated cost is alarming because it raises questions about the management of a crucial program that lacks transparency, on which we cannot afford serious cost overruns, development errors, and reduced production numbers that would deprive the United States of one of its core military capabilities," wrote Speier, the ranking member on the House Armed Services Oversight and Investigations subpanel, according to the Fiscal Times.
