President Trump issued an Apr. 9 executive order titled “Modernizing Defense Acquisitions and Spurning Innovation in the Defense Industrial Base.” This order is the latest in a series of hollow promises from the administration to cut Pentagon waste, and the latest push to deregulate Pentagon acquisition in ways that will lead to dramatically more waste.

The executive order requires the Pentagon to complete a comprehensive review within 90 days of all Major Defense Acquisition Programs. It asserts that “any program more than 15 percent behind schedule based on the current acquisition program baseline" that is "unable to meet any key performance parameters, or unaligned with the Secretary of Defense’s mission priorities, will be considered for potential cancellation.”

The number of programs that fall into this category is stunning. The list should include programs such as the Sentinel ICBM, the F-35, the Constellation-class Frigate, and many more programs that do not meet their cost, schedule or performance goals.

Under normal circumstances this would be cause for celebration, as the current system for addressing overbudget weapons systems is woefully inadequate. While Congress passed the Nunn-McCurdy Act in the 1980s, requiring the Pentagon to review major programs significantly over budget, the requirement has become little more than a box-checking exercise.

For instance, when the Pentagon realized the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile was 37 percent over budget, the Nunn-McCurdy Act required it to inform Congress, review the program, and either cancel it or restructure it and certify it to move forward. In July, the Pentagon cleared it to continue, but not before admitting that the restructured program would

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