Granite Sentry

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Air Force's acquisition of the Granite Sentry system, one of five subsystems comprising the Air Force's Cheyenne Mountain Upgrade Program. GAO noted that: (1) the Granite Sentry program will replace display screens on the North American Aerospace Defense Command's (NORAD) Tactical Warning and Attack Assessment System; (2) the Air Force expects to deliver Granite Sentry within its original $230-million cost estimate, but has delayed delivery from the fourth quarter of fiscal year (FY) 1993 to the third quarter of FY 1996; (3) Granite Sentry will provide a fully integrated view of the air defense, intelligence, missile warning, and space defense through four individual monitors capable of displaying multiple views of attack warning and attack assessment data; (4) while Granite Sentry will replace antiquated NORAD displays, the Air Force has abandoned its plan for three-dimensional displays; and (5) the Air Force recently changed Granite Sentry requirements, but the cost impact of those changes will not be known until the Air Force completes its upgrade of system specifications.