Efforts under way to fix Pentagon's broken procurement system

One of the first casualties was the Crusader artillery programme, which was cancelled after the Pentagon spent more than US$2 billion on it. Then there was the Comanche helicopter debacle, which got the axe after US$8 billion. More than twice that amount had been sunk into the Army's Future Combat System, but that programme got killed, too.

In all, between 2001 and 2011 the US Defence Department spent US$46 billion on at least a dozen programmes - including a new version of the president's helicopter - that never became operational, according to an analysis by the Centre for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

But for evidence of a procurement system that's broken, critics say look no further than the major programmes that are moving forward. They've grown half a trillion dollars over their initial price tags and have schedule delays of more than two years, according to the Government Accountability Office.

There are, however, new efforts under way to improve the Pentagon's purchasing methods.

Those efforts could get a boost from Representative Mac Thornberry and Senator John McCain taking the helms of the House and Senate Armed Services committees.

Industry officials say they believe that Congress will increasingly not only provide vigorous oversight of troubled programme but also enact meaningful reform.

Thornberry has been working on a legislative package for about a year, while McCain is Congress' leading critic of wasteful defence spending and is expected to make it one of his top priorities as chairman.