...Kate Blakeley, a defense budget analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said the CBO study demonstrates that the Pentagon's O&M budget lacks transparency. "The growth of O&M costs is one of the more vexing budget problems that DOD faces," she said. "With half of O&M costs effectively a black box, DOD needs to get a handle on its escalating O&M costs, which are crowding out procurement and other spending. Whether driven by higher [operational tempo], older systems, more expensive services contracts, or more costly spare parts, DOD needs to figure out where its O&M cost growth is coming from."..
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