Battlefield Automation

Premature Acquisition of the Army's Combat Service Support Control System Gao ID: NSIAD-94-51 February 4, 1994

GAO evaluated the Army's development and acquisition strategy for the Combat Service Support Control System to determine whether it will ensure that the program is ready to begin acquisition of Common Hardware and Software computers and related equipment. Specifically, GAO focused on the rationale for program changes that the Army made to justify equipment acquisition before it had done an operational test of the system. Given that the Army's unsettled acquisition strategy could result in premature procurement of more system hardware, GAO recommends that the Army defer procurement of computers until the system software (1) completes an operational test demonstrating its military effectiveness and (2) demonstrates automated data exchange among and between system control segments. The Army should also use existing Army Tactical Command and Control System sources of equipment to meet the Combat Service Support System's operational testing equipment requirements.

GAO found that: (1) the Army has postponed CSSCS operational testing due to delays in software development and technical testing; (2) the Army has not justified its acquisition of CSSCS, since it has a sufficient number of computers to complete CSSCS operational testing; (3) the Army does not plan to use the results of its 1-week demonstration to justify CSSCS procurement; (4) the Army's CSSCS acquisition strategy has resulted in premature equipment acquisitions and costly upgrades; (5) the Army's strategy to initiate low-rate initial production for CSSCS ignores congressional acquisition guidance to test Army Tactical Command and Control System (ATCCS) segments as an integrated system; (6) the fiscal year 1994 Department of Defense appropriation denied funding for CSSCS procurement; and (7) the Army is planning to conduct operational testing before seeking full-rate production approval for CSSCS.

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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