The US Navy set out to create an advanced, centralized computer network to automate inventory, supply chain management, and bookkeeping across its global fleet and shore stations.

Originally budgeted in the tens of millions of dollars (initial estimates for software and implementation were around $33 million), the project was plagued by severe technical flaws, poor management, hardware incompatibilities, and massive scope creep.

As costs skyrocketed past $200 million with little usable functionality delivered, Congress stepped in. The project was audited heavily by the General Accounting Office (GAO), and after spending roughly $230 million (the equivalent of over $1 billion today), the program was officially scrapped without ever becoming fully operational.

Defense critics and government oversight committees frequently cited the project as a textbook example of massive waste, concluding the military spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars and walked away with nothing useful.

In a similar case, the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) spent $180 million just to decide if they should buy a $1.8 billion computerized tax return system. They decided no.

The IRS proposed TAS, a massive, centralized computer network designed to replace its aging computer hardware and give thousands of employees instant access to taxpayer files. The total projected cost to procure, install, and run the complete system was estimated at $1.8 billion.

Over several years of research, preliminary design, systems testing, and feasibility studies, the IRS and the Department of the Treasury spent approximately $180 million planning and preparing for the system.

The project faced intense backlash from Congress, the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), and privacy advocates over fears of government surveillance, potential misuse of centralized taxpayer data, and astronomical cost overruns. Under heavy Congressional pressure and rising public opposition, the Treasury Department and the IRS officially canceled the project before the full system was ever purchased or deployed.