Battlefield Automation

Army Command and Control Systems Acquisition Cost and Schedule Changes Gao ID: NSIAD-88-42FS December 9, 1987

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Army Command and Control System's (ACCS) costs, schedule, and status, focusing on its communications architecture and acquisition programs.

GAO found that: (1) four of the major ACCS programs will use the Department of Defense standard programming language, Ada, and ACCS common hardware and software (ACCS CHS); and (2) the three communication systems that will link the command and control systems are a telephone-like communications net, a voice radio combat net, and a data distribution radio system. GAO also found that: (1) current estimated costs of $7.4 billion for the command and control systems and $13.9 billion for the communications systems represent an increase of about $2 billion between August 1986 and August 1987; (2) additional program items could increase total ACCS costs to $24.6 billion; and (3) cost increases were mainly due to quantity increases, schedule delays, software development, and production problems. In addition, GAO found that: (1) most ACCS program schedules slipped because of software development and production model reliability problems; and (2) the Army's new Program Executive Officer Concept, effective in May 1987, should streamline and improve the ACCS acquisition process through oversight of the five individual control systems, as well as the ACCS CHS program.



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