'Specialty metals' law costs Air Force big bucks.

• Position: Washington PULSE

Air Force acquisition officials increasingly are becoming frustrated by a legislative mandate to comply with the Berry Amendment, which requires that all U.S. weapons be certified as containing only domestically produced "specialty metals." The law was passed in 1941 but only recently has the Defense Department been directed to clamp down and enforce the rule. Most U.S. weapons makers use foreign metals to keep their costs down, so they actively...