April 24, 2013: The U.S. Department of Defense has 86 major procurement projects, worth $1.6 trillion if all are completed. This figure makes some allowance for cost growth, but those allowances, historically, are usually too low. The $1.6 trillion figure is nine percent less than it was last year and is expected to continue to decline as the defense budget shrinks over the next decade. That shrinkage will come from some projects being dropped, others reduced, and fewer new ones arriving.

The ten costliest projects in the last year (in terms of total project cost as of last year) are:

F-35 stealth fighter $336 billion

DDG 51 Destroyer $103 billion

Virginia class Submarine $84 billion

F/A-18E/F Fighter $59 billion

V-22 Transport $58 billion

Trident II Ballistic Missile $54 billion

KC-46 Tanker $44 billion

CVN 78 Class carrier $35 billion

P-8A Patrol Aircraft $33 billion

Littoral Combat Ship $32 billion

These ten projects represent 62 percent of the remaining cost of all the large procurement projects. These ten projects have already consumed $805 billion.