The cost to maintain a weapon is more than twice the cost to build it, a GAO official said. Related storiesThe Army estimated that O&S costs for the Excalibur — first deployed in 2007 — had soared 183% since a baseline estimate in 2011. Still, all this does raise the question of whether higher maintenance costs for US military equipment at least partially result from problems with design and manufacturing. "We don't know the specific extent of O&S cost growth due to design problems or poor sustainment management," Maurer said. "In some respects, those problems could lower O&S costs because systems cannot fly, operate, or sail as often as planned.

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