U.S. Special Operations Forces

Helicopter Cost Is Understated and Reliability Measures Are Inadequate Gao ID: NSIAD-94-46 January 25, 1994

The $1.2 billion in development and procurement estimates submitted to Congress does not reflect the total costs to develop and procure the MH-47E and MH-60K helicopters. For example, at least $367 million in procurement costs were omitted because they were included in budget documents for Army programs or activities. In addition, the total cost to support and maintain the aircraft--pegged at upwards of $3.6 billion--has not been reported to Congress because there is no requirement to do so. The primary reliability measurement criterion the Army plans to use to assess the helicopters' reliability is flawed because it measures only their ability to return to friendly territory and not their ability to perform special missions. Because the Army is focusing on the aircraft's ability to return to friendly territory, the measure does not assess the effectiveness of essential equipment.

GAO found that: (1) the $1.2 billion estimate reported to Congress does not reflect the total costs to develop and procure MH-47E and MH-60K helicopters; (2) the USSOCOM budget estimate does not include $367 million in procurement costs or the total cost to maintain the aircraft because these costs are included in Army budget documents; (3) USSOCOM is not required to provide Congress with life-cycle cost estimates for the aircraft; (4) the Army's reliability measurement criterion is flawed because it does not measure the helicopters' ability to perform special operations missions; and (5) the Army plans to collect data to better measure project mission success, but it does not plan to use the data as the primary criteria for assessing the helicopters' reliability.

Recommendations

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