Major Acquisitions

DOD's Process Does Not Ensure Proper Weapons Mix for Close Support Mission Gao ID: NSIAD-92-180 April 17, 1992

This report assesses the Defense Department's (DOD) close support major acquisition process. GAO looks at whether the (1) process identifies the proper mix of weapon systems needed to meet current and future mission requirements; (2) increased involvement of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has broadened DOD's analyses to include consideration of the expected contribution of all services' close support assets; and (3) the Army's planned procurements supporting its current doctrine and future war-fighting concept will overlap traditional areas of Air Force operations.

GAO found that: (1) the DOD major acquisition process for close support does not ensure that the proper mix of weapons is developed and procured to meet current and planned mission requirements; (2) the individual services generate their own analyses and assessments to support desired changes in missions, requirements, or procurement for submission to JCS and the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), but those assessments do not question what and how much is needed for the mission area and do not adequately consider the expected contributions of other close support weapons systems; (3) the services justify acquisitions based on unique mission needs or unique weapon capabilities, so competition among weapon systems in this environment is generally limited to a single weapon category; (4) the increased involvement of the Chairman of the JCS has not ensured that the expected contributions of all services' close support assets are considered when individual services propose changes in mission tasks, weapon system requirements, or procurement; (5) the Army is planning to procure several new close support weapon systems including attack helicopters, artillery, and missile systems; (6) in the future, the Army plans to use new surveillance and other technologies that will make weapons more accurate and lethal at greater ranges; and (7) the Army's close support procurement plans are intended to support its current doctrine and future war-fighting concept, but if approved, the Army procurements could overlap the Air Force's fixed-wing capabilities.

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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