White Sands Missile Range was the site of the first atomic-bomb test in 1945. Now the Army is using the New Mexico complex for a different kind of test: to see if it can get more bang for its buck/…/ The Army’s Cold War-era approach of long-term weapons-development programs saw a string of high-profile failures in the past decade. In a report this year, the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments noted several multibillion-dollar equipment programs that never led to the fielding of any new items, including Comanche, a stealth helicopter effort that cost $7.9 billion, and Crusader, a $2.2 billion investment in a self-propelled artillery system.