Pentagon programs plagued by 'Over-Optimism'.

• Author: Book, Elizabeth G.
• Position: Washington Pulse - Brief Article

The Pentagon must sometimes cancel defense programs because of cost overruns and schedule slips. However, the real problem often is not the performance of the program, but rather "over-optimistic" expecrations, said the Deferise Department's acquisition chief.

"We need to do something to address that problem," said Edward 'Pete' Aldridge, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics.

During a news conference, Aldridge noted that the December cancellation of the Navy's area-wide missile defense program provided some "lessons learned" on how to prevent future projects from falling victim to "over-optimism."

"I have personally taken on an objective for AT&L [acquisition, technology and logistics] to do some things that take away some of this over-optimism early in the program," Aldridge said. "I believe all of these programs, and there's many of them, are in trouble because of optimism about how fast, what the scheduled cost performance was going to be."

One way to address this problem is to...