Cost creep continues to plague defense acquisition programs

The overall size of the Pentagon’s portfolio of major defense acquisition programs went down in fiscal 2014, with the total price tag the lowest it’s been in a decade. But a new report shows those numbers are not as promising as they appear.

First, the good news: The estimated cost of the Defense Department’s 2014 portfolio of 78 major weapon system acquisition programs is $90 billion less than the 2013 portfolio of 80 programs, according to a nearly 200-page report from the Government Accountability…