We’ve all dropped money into a black hole before. Whether it’s a car that we were determined to fix up or we just bought the wrong sort of “investment” (looking at you, crypto), certain projects can just turn into money pits.
Interestingly, the government has had quite a few of those mishaps as well.
Government projects start with the highest of hopes (and price tags). But not all of them pan out.
Whether it was due to dropped funding or just poor design, here are some of the biggest money-holes that governments have dropped BILLIONS of dollars into never to be seen again.
1. Rockwell B-1 Lancer – $1 billion
The paragon of Pentagon waste, the B-1 Lancer was developed in the 70s as a replacement for the very famous “B-52” bombers.
But after a few prototypes were developed, the project came to a bit of a halt because the design and cost weren’t working out and the military moved into developing the B-2. But B-1s were still built and these babies cost $200 million apiece!
After US President Jimmy Carter canceled the project, Ronald Reagan resurrected it and decided to order 100 of them!
The problem is that while they can fly, they still have issues and the cost of their upkeep is enormous.
2. XM2001 Crusader – $11 Billion
This project was created to develop a self-propelled gun for the US Army.
It was going to be the next-gen artillery and was upgraded in almost every way…except it never happened.
It wasn’t mobile or accurate, and in 2002 Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld put the kibosh on the whole thing.
3. Zumwalt Class Destroyer – $3 Billion/ship
The Zumwalt Destroyer was going to be the most advanced warship ever made for the USA. And it probably was…
Except it was also the MOST expensive. In fact, it was so expensive that of the 32 that were ordered, only 3 were delivered. They don’t even want to use them in combat because they are so expensive!
According to the 2007 Report of the Committee on Armed Services stated:
“The committee understands there is no prospect of being able to design and build the two lead ships for the $6.6 billion budgeted. The committee is concerned that the navy is attempting to insert too much capability into a single platform. As a result, the DD(X) is now expected to displace more than 14,000 tons and by the navy’s estimate, cost almost $3.3 billion each.”
4. The Army’s “Universal Camouflage Pattern” – $5 Billion
In 2004, the US Army revealed their newly redesigned uniforms designed to look like pixels. They were supposed to look cool, but…well, even that part was a major fail.
In fact, they were so poorly designed for combat that soldiers stopped wearing them in active combat for fear of being shot! They stood out like sore thumbs in the landscape they were trying to camouflage themselves in.
How could something like this happen? Well, long story short, they were jealous of the Marines’ cool new uniforms that incorporated a subtle pixel pattern.
This turned out to be such a mess that the Army had to use a private company to mass-produce uniforms ASAP before once again trying to design their own.
5. M247 Sergeant York – $6 Billion
The York was a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun (SPAAG) that seemed like a slam-dunk for the U.S. but suffered from endless technical problems.
For starters, the radar wasn’t able to tell the difference between trees and helicopters (that’s really bad).
They tried to save money by using spare parts from WWII tanks, but that just made things worse (go figure).
The whole project was finally canceled in 1985.
6. Boeing-Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche – $7 Billion
This was going to be the go-to replacement helicopter for all of the currently operating Huey, Cobra, and Kiowa choppers in the United States. The design was going to be quick and stealthy, able to do all the things the others could do – but better.
When it was finally tested, it couldn’t even get off the ground without trouble!
It went through two prototypes phases before it was canceled altogether.
7. Maginot Line – ~$7.6 Billion
The U.S. isn’t the only country funneling money into doomed military projects. The Maginot Line was France’s response to getting the smackdown in WWI.
It was a defense system designed to make the French/German border impenetrable. When WWII came around, the French were READY… and the Germans just walked around the wall and beat them anyway.
It turns out they assumed the surrounding, non-fortified forest was impenetrable. But they were wrong.
8. Airbus A400 Atlas – $10 Billion
This new plane was going to replace older European transport vessels. But it was delayed to the point that most of Europe was going to start leasing planes from the US so they could keep at least some aircraft operating.
The best quote about the plane from the Minister of Defense?
“The A400M is a complete, absolute wanking disaster, and we should be ashamed of ourselves. I have never seen such a waste of public funds in the defense field in the past 40 years.”
One of the 11 planes ended up crashing soon after deployment. But the program wasn’t a total waste – they are still producing variants of the original aircraft.
9. Future Combat Systems – $32 Billion
Future Combat Systems was a program meant to modernize the US Army. It was developed in 1999 and was going to include a fleet of unmanned systems (tanks, planes, etc.) that would be the next step for weaponry in the US for the 21st century.
After 9/11, however, it needed to be redesigned. Costs skyrocketed and, eventually, it was canceled and parts of it were bundled into other programs.
The good news is it was scheduled to cost over $300 billion – so apparently they saved some money.
10. Project Nike – $20 Billion
This is a classic Cold War paranoia-led budget catastrophe. It was a massive plan for anti-missile batteries all over the US with a focus on major cities and military targets.
While the US was growing their massive network, the Soviets were phasing out bomber planes, making the Nike surface-to-air missiles useless.
That’s one way to thwart your enemy!
11. MX Missle – $25 Billion
Also known as the LGM-118 Peacekeeper, the MX Missle Program was a US-led nuclear deterrent program created in the 1970s.
It was an intercontinental ballistic missile with 10 re-entry devices, each with its own 300-kiloton W87 warhead (it would shoot into the air and split up to take out multiple nuclear threats).
It was canceled and restarted a few times until finally it was agreed it was just too expensive to build.
It was taken out of commission in 2003 after 114 missiles were made.
12. Strategic Defense Initiative – $150 Billion
This initiative, also known as the “Star Wars program,” was set into motion a few weeks after the “Evil Empire” speech by US president Ronald Reagan.
It was a space-based laser and satellite system that would theoretically shoot down incoming nuclear missiles coming from intercontinental or submarine sources.
But it ended up becoming a cash vacuum as theoretical research and development pushed costs over $100 billion.
It never even made it past the theoretical stage before it was canceled, although some of the funds went to basic scientific research, so it wasn’t a total net loss.
13. Hitler’s Atlantic Wall – $200 Billion
After defeating France in WWII, Hitler commanded his military to build a fortification across the Atlantic coast to stop Allied forces.
Known as Fuehrer Directive 40, it was designed to include 15,000 fortifications and 250k Germans to man them – all in less than a year.
It was a big show, it turned out. It was breached in less than a day and most of the encampments weren’t finished.
14. Lockheed Martin F-35 Lighning II – $1.5 Trillion
The JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) program was a revolutionary effort to create a plane that the Air Force, Marines, and Navy could all use. Hence, the F-35 was born.
However, it ran into a TON of technical problems and was obsolete as soon as it was released.
Since the program’s inception in 1995, it has cost 1.5 trillion USD.
It wasn’t a complete waste, however. There have been later iterations of the Lightning II that have proved useful to the United States military.
15. Albanian Bunkers – The country’s entire military budget
Our final entry isn’t necessarily the most expensive blunder on the list by number, but it might be by ratio!
Albanian leader Enver Hoxha started building bunkers in the 1960s to defend from the threats he believed would come from the West AND the East.
As a result, he built 750,000 bunkers, spending almost all of the military budget which was set to 1/4th of the countries GDP!
You can still see those bunkers today as there are nearly 6 of them every square kilometer!
America has one of the finest fighting forces in all the world, but it hasn’t come cheap!
Still, we aren’t the only ones who have blown billions on things that just don’t pan out (looking at you, Albania).
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