There is no way to sugarcoat that U.S. defense procurement is broken. The examples are distressingly numerous.

The Navy decided to buy 10 each of the competing LCS (Littoral Combat Ship) designs, even though the planned $250 million per ship has risen to $600 million for a ship with minimal weapons and no mission modules ready for which it was designed. The JSF (Joint Strike Fighter), which is intended to replace most of the nation’s fighter aircraft inventory for the Air Force, Navy and Marines in addition to allied air forces, is in deep trouble. The price of the F-35 program is estimated to rise 10 percent, up to $55 billion dollars, and it will be a year late to enter service, delayed to 2015.

The Air Force’s new tanker, the KC-X, was scuttled via legal wrangling between winning bidder Northrop-Grumman and Boeing, leaving the Air Force with KC-135 tankers procured in the 1960s.

The mess couldn’t have come at a worse time. The average age of the Air Force fighter fleet is 23 years per aircraft and the Navy has shrunk to the least amount of ships since the 19th century.

The new Congress swept into office on Nov. 7 needs to hold these contractors and the services accountable for the problems, because the services are facing a blanket problem of rapidly-aging equipment dating from the Reagan administration and shrinking dollars to replace it. Alternatives, even if they come from overseas, need to be found.

With the defense budget likely to shrink under the weight of a massive deficit, something has got to give.