Pentagon Starts to Bargain Hunt

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Defense Department has unveiled its surprising new plan to start reining in its supersized budget: after nine years of unbridled war spending, the military will finally start bargain hunting.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters at a Pentagon news conference Tuesday that the military will begin weighing whether something is affordable before buying it.

Contracts exceeding $1 billion will have to identify ways to keep costs down. And when looking to spend money, the military will try to do more to comparison shop, Gates said.

The initiatives are part of Gates' goal to find $100 billion in savings in the next five years so that the money can be used for troops and weapons modernization.