Tactical Intelligence

Accelerated Joint STARS Ground Station Acquisition Strategy Is Risky Gao ID: NSIAD-96-71 May 23, 1996

The Army and the Air Force are jointly developing the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS), which is designed to locate and track wheeled and track vehicles beyond the ground line of sight during either day or night and under most weather conditions. The Army is responsible for the development, test, production, and fielding of Joint STARS ground station modules. GAO found that the Army's strategy to accelerate production of the Common Ground Station--the next version of the ground station modules--unnecessarily risks millions of dollars on an unproven system. GAO believes that buying more systems than are needed for operational testing and evaluation significantly raises the risks of procuring a costly and ineffective system. The Army has accelerated the program and moved the first fielding date for the Common Ground Station from fiscal year 2002 to fiscal year 1998. However, the Army lacks analyses showing an urgent need to field the added capabilities of the Common Ground Station four years earlier than planned or showing that the expected benefits of accelerated procurement, prior to successful completion of operational testing and evaluation, outweigh the risks.

GAO found that: (1) the Army planned to purchase 22 CGS in two years of low-rate initial production (LRIP) at a cost of $138 million, but it now plans to procure 34 CGS systems; (2) the Army has neither demonstrated an urgent need for CGS nor proved that the expected benefits from accelerated procurement outweigh its risks; (3) by 1998, the Army will need at least four CGS to complete operational test and evaluation; (4) since earlier versions of CGS have not tested well or completed an operational test and evaluation, the Army's acceleration of CGS LRIP increases the risk of procuring a costly and ineffective system; and (5) because the Army is only required to purchase one CGS in the second year of LRIP, it could significantly reduce system costs by procuring fewer systems in the early stages of the contract.

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.

Director: Team: Phone:


The Justia Government Accountability Office site republishes public reports retrieved from the U.S. GAO These reports should not be considered official, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Justia.