Choose a specific investigation area.

The Project On Government Oversight is committed to exposing waste, fraud and corruption in the following areas: defense, energy & environment, contract oversight and open government.
To review archive documents scroll down the color-coded, thematically organized, and chronologically filed links, or select one of the four archive investigation buttons above.

Our country’s national defense should never take a back seat to private special interests. But too often it does, putting our nation’s servicemen and women at risk and the agendas of defense contractors ahead of legitimate national security needs. POGO's “Defense Investigations” expose wasteful military spending, the inappropriate influence that contractors wield over government decision-making, and weapons that do not work.

POGO strongly believes that sunshine is the best disinfectant and that we must empower citizens with the information and tools to hold their government accountable. POGO’s “Open Government Investigations” aim to prevent corruption in the federal government by encouraging insiders and whistleblowers to expose wrongdoing, increasing the ways that citizens can participate in their government, and improving citizen and journalist access to government documents and information.

The U.S. federal government is the largest consumer of goods and services in the world, spending $230 billion annually on goods and services. POGO’s “Contract Oversight Investigations” examine the federal government’s policies and relationships with grant recipients as well as major companies receiving billions of dollars in contracts and subsidies annually.

Every day, lobbyists from powerful mining, oil, and nuclear interests push their agendas before Congress, the Administration, and the courts. The result is that the government often fails to uphold its duty to clean up past mistakes, hold polluters accountable, and protect citizens from exposure to toxic substances. POGO’s “Energy and Environment Investigations” expose how these problems cost taxpayers and how bureaucracies refuse to take responsibility for adequately protecting our nation’s citizens.

Our country's national defense should never take a back seat to private special interests. But too often it does, putting our nation's servicemen and women at risk and the agendas of defense contractors ahead of legitimate national security needs. POGO's "Defense Investigations" expose wasteful military spending, the inappropriate influence that contractors wield over government decision-making, and weapons that do not work. Please visit POGO's Contract Oversight Archive for our investigations into the Revolving Door, Contractor Misconduct, Iraq Reconstruction, and more on defense contractors. Click on one of the program areas below: Defense Contractor Mergers Spare Parts Defense Contractor Sweetheart Deals Wasteful Defense Spending Faulty Aircraft Wiring Weapons Watch

Defense Contractor Mergers

Defense contractors are pushing to change the rules of contracting with the government so that they can more easily line their pockets with taxpayer dollars. Because this affects not just defense spending but all federal contracts POGO has placed these issues in the Contract Oversight section.
Follow this link to Cost Accounting Standards

POGO Alert - 'Payoffs for Layoffs:' Much More Than A Sound Bite, March 11, 1997. Concise description of the reasons why the government should not pay defense corporations to merge.

POGO Alert - Defense Corporations Are Hurting and Need a Break, Right? Wrong!, Data showing that defense corporate stocks have been performing far better than the market overall. October 15, 1996.

The Wrong Industrial Policy. Op-ed arguing that the Administration should support transition of defense corporations to civilian work rather than subsidizing their mergers. September 1996.

An Assessment of the Defense Department's Merger Payments Report. An analysis providing counterpoint to a report supporting defense corporate merger subsidies. July 2, 1996.

Government Payments for Defense Industry Mergers: Talking Points. Arguments against unneeded merger subsidies. June 25, 1996.

Defense Contractor Sweetheart Deals

Follow this link to Contractor Sweetheart Deals which includes
the Boeing Tanker Lease

Because this affects not just defense spending but all federal contracts POGO has placed these issues in the Contract Oversight section.

Faulty Aircraft Wiring

Follow this link to Faulty Aircraft Wiring

Because this affects not just defense aircraft but all aircraft under FAA safety regulations, POGO has placed these issues in the Contract Oversight section.

Spare Parts

Defense Contracts Management Agency moves Sikorsky to a Level III Corrective Action Request, and this time, they mean business. Follow the link to read the DCMA's letter and Alan Cohn’s most recent reports.

Sikorsky battling major quality control problems, Alan Cohn from News Channel 8 with WTNH in Connecticut, November 29, 2006. Follow this link to read the documents.
There are startling new indications that quality control problems at Stratford based Sikorsky Aircraft are resulting in defective parts getting onboard U.S. military helicopters. ...But according to these internal company charts, since 2004 quality problems at Sikorsky have gone up 8-fold...."It sounds like a recipe for disaster," says Nick Schwellenbach, POGO. ...Nick Schwellenbach is an investigator at the project on government oversight in Washington. He echoes other experts stating the company's apparent inability to fix its quality control problems may be endangering U.S. troops. ..."Obviously, Sikorsky hasn't prioritized the safety of American soldiers who are flying these helicopters who depend on every single part in this highly complicated flying machine to work properly under stressful conditions," says Schwellenbach.

Read about how a Pentagon computer system that was supposed to prevent defense contractor ripoffs resulted in spending $409 on a $39 sink. Philadelphia Inquirer. March, 2001.

"Pentagon Sticker Shock" is back in this Jim Hightower commentary. February, 2001.

POGO Alert - Defense Contractor Spare Parts Ripoffs Make Comeback: $1,887 Bolt - $2,185 Nut - $14,529 Hub - $11,701 Radio. In 1998 the price of almost 3,000 spare parts purchased by the military increased by 1,000 percent or more in just one year. November, 2000.

POGO Alert - Outraged by the Return of $76 Screws? - Here's What Can Be Done About It. Remedies to fix the "reforms" that have allowed massive price gouging by defense contractors to occur again, April 8, 1998.

POGO Alert - Getting Screwed Again. The days of $7,600 Pentagon coffee pots are back. March 19, 1998.

Wasteful Defense Spending

Pentagon Report: High-Flying Spy Drones Hobbled, Wired News: Danger Room, by Noah Shachtman, December 20, 2007.
The Pentagon's highest-flying spy drone isn't able to "consistently " perform, even on a "limited schedule," according to a draft Defense Department report. The Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is designed to fly at altitudes of up 60,000 feet, for a day at a time -- staring down on foes with a combination of synthetic aperture radar, infrared sensors, and long-range cameras. Flown remotely from a set of cramped trailers at Beale Air Force Base in California, a Global Hawk typically looks down on more than 450 targets per day in Iraq and the greater Middle East -- spying on everything from improvised bomb sites to insurgent trucks to individual guerrillas. That is, when they can fly. According to a draft report, from the Defense Department's Director Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E), the current Global Hawk models -- so-called “Block 10s” -- aren't able to get into the air nearly as often as they ought to. The document was obtained by the Project on Government Oversight and provided to Danger Room. "Increased combat operational tempo combined with less-than-predicted reliability and limited sparing of key components resulted in a declining Block 10 mission capable rate," the report notes. "Low Global Hawk system reliability adversely affects the ability... to consistently fly on a limited schedule." After the 9/11 attacks, Global Hawk prototypes were rushed into service -- flying missions over Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere. The first two production models -- the Block 10s -- arrived at Beale in early 2006. Nine have been built, overall. And defense contractor Northrop Grumman is already working on larger, longer-flying "Block 20" and "Block 30" versions. The first Block 20 flew earlier this year. Those later models have become controversial projects, within the military. The Block 20 program went approximately $2 billion over-budget after a redesign. And the DOT&E report says the project is still running the risk of delays, with "sensor suite development and production continu[ing] behind the originally scheduled pace.”

Pentagon report dings N. M. Guard's Gen. Montoya, KRQE’s Larry Barker Reports: July 16, 2007 (originally from February 2, 2006).
A Pentagon investigation found that the New Mexico National Guard inappropriately dispatched F-16’s to a flyover at the opening of a car dealership in Roswell, NM.

Hawks and Hogs: Why no one dares attack the waste in defense spending, ReasonOnline, by David Weigel, July 2007.
Shortly after the midterm elections, as his fellow Republicans lay moaning on a row of hospital stretchers, South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint made a decision: He wasn’t going to stick earmarks for his state into any more spending bills. If some greedy constituent expected him to bring some pork back home, that was just tough. He was through with earmarking—with one caveat. “There should be some very limited earmarks in defense spending bills,” the senator says. ... Part of the problem is outright pork, the kind of projects that legislators like DeMint have doggedly pursued, with occasional success, in nondefense discretionary spending. ... In the early months of this year, the Democratic Congress passed an emergency spending bill for Iraq that included $20 billion in pork, including $74 million for peanut storage and $100 million for citrus growers, to bring stragglers on board. President Bush and the GOP denounced these spending items vehemently and repeatedly. But that was just camouflage for their real objection to the bill: that it set a timetable for a troop withdrawal. Bush didn’t have trouble signing a pork-laden defense bill just a year earlier, when the emergency appropriations for Iraq somehow included $700 million to relocate railroad tracks in Mississippi. In the absence of controversial timetables, neither party will even talk about cutting spending that goes largely to the Defense Department or to fund a war. The Democrats, in particular, have many reasons to shy away from slashing military spending. “The Democrats are out to prove themselves in the area of national security,” says Nick Schwellenbach, a fellow at the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit group that monitors federal spending. “They won’t touch the budget for defense because they’re afraid of those negative ads. It’s impossible to kill weapo ns systems right now.”

Waste Management Congressman Jim Cooper unearths a multimillion dollar middleman sapping taxpayer money from the U.S. Army’s budget, Business TN Magazine, June 2007, by Alexei Smirnov.
A $10 million donation from Uncle Sam to a private venture capital fund in return for a vague promise of eventually investing in new technologies for the U.S. Army — in his time as investment banker between 1995 and 2002, Nashville Congressman Jim Cooper never came across a deal this sweet. Which is probably why an obscure item in the Defense Department’s recent authorization bill peaked Cooper’s interest in the first place. After a week of intense research, Cooper’s D.C. staff discovered that somehow, several businessmen previously unknown in the nation’s venture capital circles, convinced the U.S. Army to hand over $61.9 million in unspent military funds since 2002. ... The Central Intelligence Agency’s venture capital arm In-Q-Tel of Arlington, Va., has invested $150 million in more than 90 companies since its inception in 1999, including satellite-mapping software Google Earth. NASA’s Red Planet Capital fund is yet to announce its initial investments. It’s not surprising that OnPoint and MILCOM received little oversight from its client, the Office of the Army. According to the Government’s Accountability Office, the U.S. Department of Defense has never undergone a financial audit, and of the 26 “high-risk” areas found by GAO within the federal government, 14 are at the DoD. Given that the Congress approved a $440 billion budget, not including the war expenses, for fiscal year 2007, OnPoint’s $61 million appear to be mere pennies. Still, “it’s disgusting that the Army is shoveling their resources out the door,” says Beth Daley, director of investigations at the 26-year-old, not-for-profit Project on Government Oversight, “especially in a war time situation, when a number of requests from the front lines were not fulfilled because of bureaucratic inaction and lack of resources.”

Heady days for makers of weapons, New York Times, December 26, 2006, by Leslie Wayne.
These are very good times for military contractors. Profits are up, their stocks are rising and Pentagon spending is reaching record levels. The only cloud might seem to be what the Democratic takeover of Congress could mean for their business. After all, this is an industry that has generally supported the Republican Party by sending about 60 percent of its political contributions to Republican candidates. But, even so, few in the military industry are worried. … "These contractors clearly are relieved," said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit that has been critical of Pentagon practices. "These reforms won't be the No. 1 priority for the committee, but it will be an important priority."

RAND study for DoD states that new tankers are not needed, GovExec.com, January 27, 2006.
A new analysis of the Air Force's tanker modernization plans has found that the military can safely delay expensive plans to replace its fleet of aerial-refueling planes, contradicting longstanding Air Force claims that the aircraft were aging and in disrepair, according to sources familiar with the study. read this article »

Tuning Up Weaponry Budgets, Washington Post, June 15, 2005
The House is expected to consider a $409 billion defense appropriations bill this week, with legislators targeting several programs for cuts and others for generous increases. read this article »

Tanker Backers Come Up Empty, Wichita Eagle, June 13, 2005.
Sen. Pat Roberts held part of the corroded belly of a KC-135 at a Senate hearing, claiming U.S. military personnel could be endangered if they keep flying in 45-year-old planes that need replacement. read this article »


"Too Many Weapons," Andy Rooney Commentary on CBS's 60 Minutes, October 24, 2004.


"Report: Pentagon Wasted $100 Million," NBC Nightly News, June 8, 2004.
The Pentagon wasted as much as $100 million on commercial airplane tickets that were never used between 1997 and 2003, according to a new report by the investigative arm of Congress, due to be released Wednesday.


Military waste under fire $1 trillion missing -- Bush plan targets Pentagon accounting. San Francisco Chronicle, May 18, 2003.
The Department of Defense, already infamous for spending $640 for a toilet seat, once again finds itself under intense scrutiny, only this time because it couldn't account for more than a trillion dollars in financial transactions, not to mention dozens of tanks, missiles and planes.


POGO Alert - Concern Over Rumsfeld Transformation Grows. Members of Congress express concern about proposal to reduce Congressional oversight of the Pentagon. May 13, 2003.


"Key Details Lacking On Post-9/11 Billions." The Pentagon refuses to account for $28.5 billion allocated to fight terrorism. Learn more about the lack of financial accountability in this Defense Week article. May 12, 2003. Defense Week material is copyrighted and unlawful to reproduce without permission of the publisher.


POGO Letter to House Armed Services Committee on 2004 Defense Authorization. Transparency and financial accountability are threatened by several proposals in the Pentagon budget. May 2, 2003.


Kamen Skunks the Garden Party. The Pentagon canceled its taxpayer-paid romp at the Atlantic City Trump Taj Mahal after the Washington Post's Al Kamen exposed it. To read Kamen's columns, click here, February 24, 2003.

Weapons Watch

POGO’s investigations into military weapons seek to illustrate some defense contractors’ improper influence on Pentagon decision making. For example, regardless of effectiveness or even Pentagon requests for these weapons, Members of Congress ardently support weapons systems built or maintained in their districts. These systemic flaws lead to misspending on military weapons programs, placing tax dollars and national defense at risk.  (Follow the links below to learn more on specific weapons.)

A-10 Warthog Aircraft	F/A-22 Fighter Aircraft
B-1 Bomber	Future Combat Systems
B-2 Bomber	Growler (Internally Transportable Vehicle – ITV)
Ballistic Missile Defense	Joint Strike Fighter Aircraft
Black Hawk Helicopter	Patriot Missile
C-17 Airlifter	Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
C-130J Transport Aircraft	Stryker Interim Armored Vehicle
Comanche Helicopter	V-22 Osprey Tilt-Rotor Aircraft
Crusader Howitzer

MRAP vehicles are started up and inspected in South Carolina in January before being shipped to Iraq.

Marine Corps spokesman Col. David Lapan said the Defense Department's inspector general wants to investigate the report's claims that bureaucratic delays undermined the program to develop the armored vehicles.

The program was designed to provide combat forces with Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles, known by the acronym MRAPs.

The Marine Corps requested an investigation last week after receiving Marine technology expert Franz Gayl's report.

"If the mass procurement and fielding of MRAPs had begun in 2005 in response to the known and acknowledged threats at that time, as the USMC is doing today, hundreds of deaths and injuries could have been prevented," Gayl wrote in the report.

The report concluded that bureaucratic delays plagued the program at the height of the insurgency, when U.S. troops were regularly being attacked and killed by roadside bombs. … Gayl wrote the January 22 report about the MRAP program, but it is not considered an official document.

"In the past, Gayl has leveled serious charges about the wartime acquisition process; therefore his supervisors provided him an opportunity, on government time, to conduct a series of case studies to attempt to validate his arguments," the Marine Corps said in e-mail response to a CNN query.

"If Gayl was able to provide compelling evidence of flaws or errors in the system, his supervisors would then determine how best to address his concerns with senior Marine Corps leaders in order to effect positive change."

In the same e-mail response, the Marine Corps explained that several improvements to acquisition have been made, and officials note that Defense Secretary Robert Gates has made MRAP a top priority.

"However, because of the seriousness of the allegations," the Marine Corps decided to ask for the investigation. …

Marines halt study critical of MRAP program, USA Today, By Tom Vanden Brook, February 26, 2008.
The Marine Corps has ordered a civilian scientist to stop work on a report critical of its efforts to obtain new armored vehicles, saying he exceeded his authority, a Marine official said Tuesday.

Franz Gayl, a retired Marine officer and civilian science adviser, alleged in a Jan. 22 report that "gross mismanagement" of the program to quickly field Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles had resulted in the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of Marines in Iraq. Gayl had planned to continue his investigation. … Gayl's initial proposal indicated he would look at MRAPs and other equipment and weapons systems, said Adam Miles of the Government Accountability Project, a non-partisan Washington watchdog group.

Miles' organization provides legal counsel to Gayl, who filed for federal whistle-blower protection in May. Miles said Gayl had planned further studies on how the Marines had failed to field other needed equipment, including one regarding non-lethal weapons.

Miles applauded the call for an inspector general's investigation. "After the Marine Corps had basically spent a week trying to distance itself from Franz's study, this was important acknowledgement of the serious issues that he's raised," he said. …

Government watchdogs criticize SLAMRAAM, Aerospace Daily & Defense Report, By Michael Bruno, February 15, 2008.
SLAMRAAM SLAMMED: Government watchdogs in Washington have slammed the U.S. Army’s $623 million Surface-Launched Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile after the DOD’s inspector general said the program needs to be reworked. According to a December 2007 report by the DOD IG, obtained by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), the Army needs to “rebaseline” the contract due to “contractor technical difficulties” and “increased contract costs,” stemming from thin management of the program and its dependence on contractor Raytheon’s plan.

POGO Alert - Internal Study: Marine Corps Mismanagement Cost Lives: Armored Vehicles Held Up by "Byzantine" Procurement System, February 20, 2008.

Tool of war trumped, St. Petersburg Times, by David DeCamp, July 15, 2007.
U.S. soldiers in Iraq will soon see shipments of specially armored trucks designed to withstand the roadside bombs that have killed more service members there than any other single cause. This should be good news, but the truck's troubled path has tempered optimism for it. The Marine Corps' urgent request for the first big batch of these vehicles languished in red tape for almost two years. And in that time, Iraqi insurgents, who saw a handful of the vehicles used around Baghdad, upgraded their bombs to penetrate the truck's armor. Instead of demonstrating America's war fighting prowess, the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle -- MRAP in military parlance -- illustrates how even a wealthy industrial power can struggle to wage war against a nimble and unconventional enemy. ... But bureaucracy also choked the flow of MRAPs, as well as other equipment, to soldiers, according to documents made public in a report by the Project on Government Oversight and the Associated Press. They uncovered a review of the military's purchase process that was done for the secretary of defense, which found that equipment requests "frequently languished" in the approval process. As for the kind of urgent request Hejlik made, the documents said, "Process worship cripples operating forces."

Marines Battle Bureaucrats and Plead for High-Tech Gear, Wired News, by David Axe, May 31, 2007.
The Scan Eagle drone effectively patrols desolate western Iraq, but the Quantico bureaucracy repeatedly rebuffs Marines' attempts to get more. Maj. John Rumbaugh's job was hard enough without all the mortar attacks. An Army surgeon attached to a Marine force in Iraq's lawless Al Anbar province, the Maryland resident saw a constant stream of casualties from roadside bombings, gunfights and checkpoint shootings. Meanwhile insurgents, exploiting gaps in patrols in the region, would periodically rush the base, fire a handful of mortars at the Marine hospital, then disappear. Almost every day for a year the insurgents repeated the deadly trick with seeming impunity. With just 20,000 Marines and a few hundred soldiers to cover thousands of square miles, there simply weren't enough troops to secure the base. Rumbaugh understood that. What he didn't understand was why the Marines' weapon s-buying bureaucracy had refused repeated, urgent requests for aerial drones that could watch over the base instead. ...Critics charge that Quantico's old-fashioned approach to weapons buying is to blame. "To some degree, a culture of indifference existed where it was acceptable to delay or deny for months our servicemen and -women's urgent needs," says Nick Schwellenbach, a defense expert with the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that tracks pork and corruption in military contracts. "This plays out subtly, though. It's rare to see a simple, point-blank refusal. Initiatives die somewhere in the system because they are not prioritized, and their constituency lies outside of the process and has little visibility into it."

POGO Alert - LEAKED DOCUMENT: Urgent Requests at Marine Corps Stymied, May 31, 2007.

POGO letter to Senators Levin and McCain regarding the Pentagon request for multiple fixed wing aircraft as part of the FY 2007 Emergency Supplemental Request for the Global War on Terror, March 22, 2007.

Marines Seek Views on Vehicle; General Dynamics' Design Has Problems, Washington Post, February 17, 2007, by Renae Merle.
The Marine Corps is asking contractors whether they could do any better than General Dynamics has done developing a go-anywhere troop vehicle, a $12 million craft prone to breakdowns and technical glitches. The Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle is supposed to be launched from ships, carrying troops to the battlefield at speeds of 30 knots on water and 45 mph on land. But after 10 years of development, recent tests have shown that it breaks down on average every 41/2 hours and has software problems. While the Marine Corps hasn't decided to cancel General Dynamics' contract, it is researching whether another company could provide an alternative design for the vehicle or some of its troubled systems, said David M. Branham, spokesman for the program. … "This is the way the government should work, because if a contractor isn't performing up to par, the government should look elsewhere," said Todd Bowers, defense investigator for the Project On Government Oversight, a watchdog group. "The only question is: Why did General Dynamics continue to receive award fees when it wasn't meeting the government's requirements?"

Free to a good country, New York Times, October 31, 2006, by Leslie Wayne.
Across the world, the Pentagon has thousands of garages, hangars and sprawling lots to store all its jets, tanks and other weaponry. But, like most American households, it is cluttered with old, unused and unwanted things. And so the Pentagon runs a little-publicized giveaway and tag sale program to clean out its overstuffed attics and closets, bulging with the greatest weapons buildup since the Reagan era. The Pentagon also uses the Excess Defense Articles program, as it is called, to reward government friends and allies across the globe. … The program is not without its critics, who say it contributes to a global arms race and may be a short-sighted way of winning friends. "Aren’t there more constructive ways for the United States to make friends?" asked Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group that studies Pentagon spending. "We are arming countries that otherwise would not afford to be armed. If we want to make friends, we should have something better to offer." … Ms. Brian, of the Project on Government Oversight, suspects the Pentagon may be pushing perfectly usable military goods out the door to make way for new ones. "The Pentagon is always trying to mothball weapons," said Ms. Brian. "It's a perennial excuse to buy new ones."

Lawmakers Settle 2006 Supplemental, by William Matthews, Defense News, June 12, 2006.
After months of sometimes acrimonious debate, the U.S. House and Senate Appropriations committees finally reached agreement on an emergency funding bill that will give the U.S. military $65.8 billion to keep fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. President George W. Bush requested $65.3 billion. Agreement comes about two weeks after the Defense Department warned it was about to run out of money to spend on the wars. … The Project on Government Oversight, a spending watchdog organization, criticized lawmakers for shifting money from battlefield necessities such as night-vision goggles to pay for the V-22s.

Boeing, military caught in C-17 numbers game, Thousands to lose jobs if Air Force kills plane, Chicago Tribune, February 5, 2006.
On a recent morning, the cavernous factory here that makes the cockpit and other key parts for the C-17 military cargo plane looks the same as it has every day for the three years it has been operating, except for white banners carrying a simple message: "Keep it sold." read this article »

What Has 35 Years of Acquisition Reform Accomplished? by Thomas Christie, Proceedings, www.usni.org, February 2006. read this report »

Corps pays $100K for retooled jeep, USA Today, December 29, 2005.
The Marine Corps is paying $100,000 apiece for a revamped Vietnam-era jeep as part of its program to outfit the hybrid airplane-helicopter V-22 Osprey, Pentagon records show. read this article »

Bull's-Eyes on a Generic Nation, Washington Post, October 24, 2005.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, testifying last week before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, declined to rule out the use of military force in Iran or Syria, although she said the administration prefers diplomacy. read this article »

Letter from Senator John McCain to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld expressing concerns of Air Force bias in an upcoming analysis regarding a Tanker Lease proposal. July 28, 2004.


POGO Alert - Portions of the Pentagon's Department of Operational Test and Evaluation 2003 Annual Report. The Pentagon used to make this report publicly available on the web, but is no longer doing so. POGO has scanned in the reports of eleven of the biggest or most troubled systems. April 16, 2004.


The Pentagon is increasingly buying weapons before they are adequately tested, putting taxpayer dollars and the troops at greater risk. To learn more, read this Newhouse News article. February 11, 2004.


Or read the Introduction to the Department of Operational Test and Evaluation 2003 report here. In order to silence its own watchdog, the Pentagon has refused to post this report on the web. February 19, 2004.


POGO Letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on briefing attended by POGO Executive Director Danielle Brian. POGO's recommendations to Rumsfeld on weapons system cancellations and fixing out-of-control Pentagon accounting systems. January 17, 2003.


Leaked Document - Navy Secretary Responds to Memo Leaked by POGO. Secretary England: "the risks were evaluated and considered acceptable to deploy these weapons systems to support our emerging plans in the war on terrorism."


POGO Alert -- Leaked Document: Navy Sending Pilots "Into Harm's Way" with Weapons That Don't Work? The Pentagon's head weapons tester warns that the Navy is deploying weapons that may not work. September 24, 2002.

Press Release: Five Weapons That Bilk the Taxpayers, February 4, 2002.

"Are We Buying the Right Weapons in the Best Way? The Pentagon's Weapons Buying Systems: Lessons Learned," transcript of panel discussion featuring: Dr. Jacques Gansler, former Undersecretary for Acquisition and Technology, Mr. Philip E. Coyle, III, former Director, Operational Test and Evaluation, Dr. Kenneth Oscar, Acting Assistant Secretary for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology and moderated by Mr. James Doyle, a founder of Defense News and former executive editor of Army, Navy, and Air Force Times. April 3, 2001.

As the Pentagon touts the success of its high tech weapons in the war in Afghanistan, the media and public should not forget that similar weapons effectiveness claims were made during the Gulf War. Many of the claims were later discredited in a 1997 U.S. General Accounting Office report evaluating the air war in the Gulf. See also POGO's Report, High Tech Weapons In Desert Storm: Hype or Reality?, July 1992.

POGO Alert - Announcing Launch of the Fighting with Failures Series. April 20, 2001.

POGO Alert -Concerns and Questions: The A-12 Aircraft Financial Fiasco. Suggests that changes need to be made to prevent court affirmations of future corporate rip-off of the Pentagon like the A-12 case. October 2, 1996.