The Navy's New Antisubmarine Warfare Standoff Weapon--an Uncertain Future

Gao ID: C-MASAD-82-11 February 26, 1982

GAO reviewed the major issues concerning the Department of the Navy's development of an antisubmarine warfare standoff weapon, currently nearing the end of the concept formulation of the major acquisition cycle.

Navy studies indicate that the standoff weapon will be effective at a range adequate to significantly improve the antisubmarine warfare capability of U.S. attack submarines. However, future improvements which are necessary to support the weapon's proposed range may not be achieved. The standoff weapon is intended to replace the Navy's only existing submarine-launched, long-range antisubmarine weapon, known as SUBROC. The Navy is extending the service life of SUBROC under a refurbishment program to improve reliability, maintainability, and system performance. However, the Navy has determined that SUBROC has exceeded its design life and is planning to retire SUBROC capability from the fleet. The Navy estimates the life-cycle program cost at $2.6 billion; however, this does not include some separately reported costs.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: John Landicho Team: General Accounting Office: Mission Analysis and Systems Acquisition Division Phone: (202) 275-6504


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