…“This is likely to become more the norm in an era with constrained budgets,” Tom Mahnken, president and CEO of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, told Bloomberg BNA. “It is laudable, but can be a challenging thing to do.”Mahnken noted two instances in which it would have been nearly impossible to predict the O&S costs of a particular system: the B-52 and B-1 bombers. The B-52, originally designed as a high-altitude nuclear bomber, “is doing things today that were never anticipated,” he said, including during the Vietnam War, when the planes were used for carpet bombing runs, and during the Gulf War, when they flew long-distance combat missions…
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