Two Acquisition-Focused GAO Reports of Interest
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) today issued two defense acquisition-related reports of potential interest to the life cycle logistics and product support community.
The results of the first, entitled “GAO-20-389 Defense Acquisitions: Action Is Needed to Provide Clarity and Mitigate Risks of the Air Force's Planned Advanced Battle Management System”, are described by the GAO as “…the Air Force is developing the Advanced Battle Management System—a network to connect U.S. forces during military operations across land, sea, space, and cyberspace. Through cloud-based data sharing, sensors on drones, aircraft, ships, and other weapon systems would gather and aggregate real-time intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance information. We found the Air Force hasn’t developed a complete plan for the system—like identifying which technologies would be included and the cost—putting it at risk for schedule delays, cost growth, and other issues if they don’t work together as intended. We made four recommendations to address this."
In the second entitled “GAO-20-356 Presidential Helicopter: Program is Meeting Cost Goals but Some Technical and Schedule Risks Remain” the GAO indicated “…The President relies on a fleet of military helicopters for transportation. The Navy plans to replace the more than 40-year-old fleet with 23 new VH-92A helicopters. The VH-92A program remains generally on target with cost and schedule. The Navy now expects the total cost of buying and operating the aircraft for the next 40 years to be $20.5 billion. That’s about 10 percent lower than original estimates in 2014. The Navy targeted January 2021 for deciding when to begin using the new helicopters, but some communications software issues still need to be resolved. Delays could defer the decision and postpone the helicopters’ addition to the fleet.” The GAO made no recommendations in this report.
The results of the first, entitled “GAO-20-389 Defense Acquisitions: Action Is Needed to Provide Clarity and Mitigate Risks of the Air Force's Planned Advanced Battle Management System”, are described by the GAO as “…the Air Force is developing the Advanced Battle Management System—a network to connect U.S. forces during military operations across land, sea, space, and cyberspace. Through cloud-based data sharing, sensors on drones, aircraft, ships, and other weapon systems would gather and aggregate real-time intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance information. We found the Air Force hasn’t developed a complete plan for the system—like identifying which technologies would be included and the cost—putting it at risk for schedule delays, cost growth, and other issues if they don’t work together as intended. We made four recommendations to address this."
In the second entitled “GAO-20-356 Presidential Helicopter: Program is Meeting Cost Goals but Some Technical and Schedule Risks Remain” the GAO indicated “…The President relies on a fleet of military helicopters for transportation. The Navy plans to replace the more than 40-year-old fleet with 23 new VH-92A helicopters. The VH-92A program remains generally on target with cost and schedule. The Navy now expects the total cost of buying and operating the aircraft for the next 40 years to be $20.5 billion. That’s about 10 percent lower than original estimates in 2014. The Navy targeted January 2021 for deciding when to begin using the new helicopters, but some communications software issues still need to be resolved. Delays could defer the decision and postpone the helicopters’ addition to the fleet.” The GAO made no recommendations in this report.