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 . With U.S. troops fighting two wars overseas and personnel costs dominating the defense budget , `` We 're facing a train wreck , '' said McCain , the ranking Republican on the committee and the GOP 's presidential candidate in 2008 . `` We can not continue on this path of escalating costs without at some point making some tough choices , which may endanger our nation 's security , '' he said . McCain and Levin singled out the Navy 's planned construction of Littoral combat ships , a class of small vessels designed for coastal operations , for particular criticism . Levin said the ships are `` way beyond '' their projected construction time of two years , and the program has grown from a cost per ship of about $ 220 million to more than $ 500 million , according to a November report from the Congressional Research Service . `` We ca n't have a ship that 's a small ship that 's supposed to be built in two years run completely out of control to double or triple or quadruple its original cost estimates , '' McCain said . He also criticized the planned purchase of 28 new Marine helicopters for the White House that he said cost `` more than Air Force One . '' But White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Tuesday that President Barack Obama has put that $ 11 billion order on hold . Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Tuesday that the Defense Department is committed to reviewing its big-ticket contracts , `` particularly those programs that are underperforming . '' The presidential helicopter project `` is one of those programs , '' he said . Levin and McCain said their push will include hearings into military contracting , legislation creating new watchdog posts in the Pentagon and an effort to stiffen congressional oversight of big-ticket programs . `` The Department of Defense has the major responsibility to make sure that these programs are run efficiently . Congress has an oversight responsibility , '' Levin said . `` Neither of those activities have been carried out adequately . '' Their announcement comes as Obama is scheduled to deliver his budget address to Congress , and Defense Secretary Robert Gates is already examining whether to cut back on some of the armed services ' biggest purchases . `` This moment also presents an opportunity , one of those rare chances to match virtue to necessity , to critically and ruthlessly separate appetites from real requirements , '' Gates told a Senate hearing in January . Among the other items under scrutiny : The $ 950 billion joint strike fighter program , the Army 's $ 200 billion Future Combat System and the Navy 's Virginia-class attack submarines . `` We are going to have lots of fights in the next two or three months over various parts of the defense budget , '' said Winslow Wheeler , an analyst for the nonprofit Center for Defense Information . The plans have leading defense contractors and members of Congress with contractors ' factories in their districts already arguing to keep their programs intact . Lockheed Martin 's F-22 program , for instance , employs about 12,000 people in 44 states , its supporters argue . But Wheeler said defense spending produces `` significantly less '' employment than spending in other areas , such as mass transit or health care . CNN 's Barbara Starr and Mike Mount contributed to this report .
Senators announce push to rein in weapons spending , tighten Pentagon oversight . Push to include legislation for new watchdog posts , hearings into contracting . Senators : Cost of 95 major weapons systems have ballooned by 30 percent . `` We can not continue on this path of escalating costs , '' Sen. McCain says .