Tank Recovery Vehicle

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Army's acquisition procedures for the procurement of a tank recovery vehicle, focusing on the: (1) selection criteria; (2) selected vehicle's compliance with the Army's established requirements for a recovery vehicle; (3) extent to which the Army's requirements met its mission needs; (4) vehicle testing procedures; and (5) the number and cost of the vehicles the Army planned to buy.

GAO found that the Army: (1) tested two competing recovery vehicles, applying criteria involving technical performance, operational suitability, cost, human logistics, and production capacity; (2) determined that both vehicles met recovery requirements and selected the vehicle which received lower horsepower and speed ratings, but was considered more affordable than the other vehicle; (3) extended full-scale engineering development of the selected vehicle to correct problems involving winches, the cooling system, reliability, and uphill towing ability before releasing any production funds; (4) did not complete a required cost and operational effectiveness analysis which could have helped to assess the impact of the vehicle's speed limitations on its operational effectiveness; and (5) was authorized to acquire 849 recovery vehicles, and planned to buy 276 at an estimated cost of $416.3 million through fiscal year 1994, although the Department of Defense proposed terminating the program because of budget considerations and questionable performance.

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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