Top Five Reasons Weapons Get Canceled (From Forbes)

Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter warned an audience at the Heritage Foundation last week that more cancellations of big weapons programs are likely to occur in the years ahead. The Obama Administration has already killed over $330 billion in planned weapons expenditures, from the Air Force’s F-22 fighter to the Army’s Future Combat System to the Navy’s Zumwalt destroyer to the Marine Corps’ Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. Carter’s prediction got me to thinking about precisely why weapons programs are terminated, which is a more complicated question than you might think. I have written a commentary on the causes of weapons cancellations for Forbes this week in a format its editors seem to favor — a list. You can read it here.