WASHINGTON (CNN)  -- Cost overruns on big-ticket Pentagon projects have left the U.S. military facing a budgetary "train wreck" at a time of growing budget deficits, Sen. John McCain said Tuesday. A Littoral combat ship is tested in July. The cost to build the ships more than doubled, according to a report. McCain and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan and the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the cost of 95 major weapons systems -- ships, aircraft and armored vehicles -- have ballooned by a total of 30 percent in recent years, to about $1.3 trillion. The senators announced an effort, including legislation, to rein in that spending and tighten Defense Department oversight.
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Senators announce push to rein in weapons spending, tighten Pentagon oversight
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Push to include legislation for new watchdog posts, hearings into contracting
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Senators: Cost of 95 major weapons systems have ballooned by 30 percent
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"We cannot continue on this path of escalating costs," Sen. McCain says
Levin and McCain said their push will include hearings into military contracting, legislation creating new watchdog posts in the @placeholder and an effort to stiffen congressional oversight of big-ticket programs.