The Pentagon is repeatedly taking risks by using old or untested missile parts, and paying hundreds of millions of dollars in extra costs Read more»

The Obama administration promised four years ago that it would significantly shrink the number of private contractors working for U.S. intelligence agencies. But a key member of Congress said this week she remains unconvinced the administration has done enough to shift critical intelligence-related jobs back to government employees. Read more»

The troubled F-35 fighter jet, which is supposed to serve as the backbone of the U.S. military’s future air combat forces, may cost much more than the nation can afford, a federal auditor told a Senate panel Wednesday. Read more» 1

The Pentagon has been paying hundreds of millions of tax dollars a year to people and companies that don’t deserve it, but its financial management shortcomings are so severe that it’s made little progress in halting the errors or even measuring their magnitude, according to a report released by a Senate committee.. Read more»

Since the United States first sent troops to Afghanistan in 2001, a signature goal of the war has been to increase the capability of Afghan national security forces. But estimates of the size of the Afghan force trained to take over this lead security role have suddenly grown fuzzy and possibly unreliable. Read more»

The Pentagon allowed a private firm providing food and water to U.S. troops in Afghanistan to overbill taxpayers $757 million and awarded the company no-bid contract extensions worth more than $4 billion over three years, according to the Pentagon’s chief internal watchdog and congressional investigators. Read more»