The Pentagon Wars, directed by Richard Benjamin, is an exposé based on the true story of the costly development of the Bradley Fighting Machine tank, which first emerged in 1975 as a concept of a new, super-duper high-tech weapon but awaited the large increase in the military budget under President Ronald Reagan. A committee of the military, including Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger (played by Richard Benjamin), orders Major General Partridge (played by Kelsey Grammer) to furnish sketches of a new tank that will combine various advanced features, but each sketch proves unsatisfactory, so various features are added or subtracted, thus ending up with the proverbial bureaucratic "camel"--that is, a horse as designed by a committee. The tank is made of lightweight materials, is designed to carry troops into battle, and has a conventional cannon that can also serve as an antiaircraft cannon. Despite the objections of Lt. Col. James G. Burton (played by Gary Elwes), the lightweight tank does not have a strong enough exterior to withstand enemy armor-piercing attacks. For Partridge, completion of the project has higher priority than Burton's objections. Still, nothing rolls off the assembly line for fifteen years. Cost is never a consideration, so the result is a $14 billion tank. The Congressional appropriation committee (Olympia Dukakis plays the committee chair) is impatient for results, given the cost and the cost overruns, so the tank is finally scheduled for display in conditions simulating a battlefield. The night before the test, Burton cautions those who are to operate the tank to minimize casualties. Predictably, before an audience of military brass and Congressional representatives, the tank is put on display, including a demonstration of an anti-tank barrage. The tank then blows up, spreading debris as far away as the bleachers where the audience is seated. According to titles at the end, the tank was subsequently reinforced at a cost of $1 billion per tank and was used in Gulf War I. All but one of those involved in the development of the tank, despite their incompetence, were promoted in rank. Burton, who tried to point out the flaws of the committee-designed tank, was instead forced to resign. Based on Burton's 1993 book, the film demonstrates how the chain of command silences technical experts and why cost overruns may be inevitable, serving as a more realistic critique of how the military operates than the paradigmatic Catch-22 (1970).  MH

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The Pentagon Wars: Reformers Challenge the Old Guard
by James G. Burton

Burton, a retired US Air Force colonel who specialized in the acquisition and testing of weapons systems and worked in the Pentagon for 14 years, was part of a small band of military activists waging war against corruption in the Pentagon.