Acquisition

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) implementation of the Defense Acquisition Improvement Program to provide an overview of the status and results DOD has achieved since it focused high-level management attention on program initiatives.

GAO found that, although the initiatives have not fully achieved the intended results, there have been improvements in the acquisition process. DOD has claimed cost savings resulting from the implementation of several initiatives; however, its techniques for estimating savings are sometimes faulty and can lead to inconsistencies in benefits and cost information reporting. Although schedule slippages have become smaller in recent years, slippages continue to occur as systems proceed through full-scale development. DOD has focused on revising its acquisition policies to give weapons support considerations equal priority and to ensure that accelerated weapons acquisition strategies place emphasis on design requirements for reliability and supportability. Although DOD has enhanced the defense industrial base, GAO could not link improvements in the base to the industrial base initiative under the acquisition improvement program, and the initiative's effect has been minimal. Since most cost growth occurs after full-scale development, it is too early to assess the long-term impact that DOD improvements have made on the systems after it began the improvement program. DOD has made little progress in stabilizing weapons acquisition programs because of its inability to propose realistic and affordable defense programs and budgets to Congress for development and procurement.

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.

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