The dramatic scaling back of a U.S. Army radio program will save the Pentagon $15 billion in projected costs, the U.S. Defense Department told members of Congress the week of Aug. 8.

The Defense Department also told lawmakers that a Navy missile program would be delayed nine months due to hardware and software failures during testing.

Army officials told lawmakers in May that the Joint Tactical Radio System Ground Mobile Radio (JTRS GMR) would breach congressional spending limits under the Nunn-McCurdy statute. The service reduced planned buys of the system from 86,956 to 11,030, prompting a critical Nunn-McCurdy breach, according to an Aug. 10 information paper released by the Pentagon Aug. 12.

A Government Accountability Office report found costs for the program’s research and development had grown by 69 percent from 2002 to 2011.