Navy should explain its big budget items more clearly: GAO

[Tony]

WASHINGTON — The Navy in recent years has made contradictory budget requests that don’t always align with its previously negotiated long-term procurement agreements, and it’s causing confusion for lawmakers tasked with crafting the annual defense budget, a government watchdog found.

Those conclusions came from a new Government Accountability Office report, released today, that said the service in at least three major acquisition programs — DDG-51 destroyers, V-22 helicopters and Virginia-class submarines — made multi-year procurement agreements and, subsequently, made budget requests that failed to follow those contracts’ plans as written.