Yes. But no.
With all due respect to Mr. Sweetman (and I say this with no disrespect and zero snark), I believe that that he accurately reported someone else's misrepresentation of facts.
In point of fact, the Teledyne Ryan Aeronutical (TRA) portion of the Compass Arrow program EAC was estimated at about $120 million (in then-year dollars) in mid-1969 and probably did not exceed $150 million* at contractual closeout. This cost includes all the NRE (Non-Recurring Engineering, i.e. Research & Development, tooling, etc, subcontractor NRE) eight (and a half) T&E air vehicles and 20 initial production air vehicles. It is unclear if this cost includes expenses for the bespoke GE J97 engine and the payload systems (more likely supplied as GFE).
There were other costs borne by the Air Force, such as conversion of the DC-130E launch aircraft and the HH-3E recovery helicopters, use of test facilities and so on. Nonetheless, it is hardly conceivable that the total program cost was $2 billion in then-year dollars, even if you allocate all possible costs (and I'm not going into that unit cost, program unit cost, etc. hairball.)
Having said that, I believe that that number does have some basis in truth, a different truth. And that truth is the probability that the total acquisition and operational cost of the combined Ryan Model 147 and 154 programs probably did come in at about $2 billion*. But that encompasses well over 1,000 reconnaissance drones, support aircraft, GSE, personnel and all operational costs spread across 11-12 years, in combat operations. This for the only successful operational recce drone system at the time.
I'll leave it to the reader to work out who in Government and Industry that the "$2 billion Compass Arrow Program Cost" factoid would benefit and serve, and who it would not.
edits: "someone else's misrepresentation", "operational recce drone system", "who in Government and Industry that"
*my speculation
