Ballistic Missile Defense

Issues Concerning Acquisition of THAAD Prototype System Gao ID: NSIAD-96-136 July 9, 1996

The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization and the Army plan to acquire a Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) User Operational Evaluation System--an early prototype version of the final THAAD system. The Army now plans to buy 40 interceptors well before testing ensures the User Operational Evaluation System's capabilities, even though the THAAD program has already experienced significant cost, schedule, and technical performance problems. As a result, the Defense Department risks acquiring a system that might not be worth deploying in an emergency. GAO also found that (1) the contractor's cost estimate for the interceptors has more than doubled since 1992 and is likely to increase further and (2) test schedule slippage, increase delivery lead times, and funding limitations have delayed the availability of the interceptors by about two years. Furthermore, airborne deployment of the Use Operational Evaluation System may be difficult because it must compete with other military hardware for scarce airlift resources.

GAO found that: (1) the Army purchased 20 interceptors for demonstration and validation flight tests, of which only 14 will be used in these tests; (2) the Army plans to commit funds for UOES production based on the results of the first 7 of the 14 scheduled flight tests; (3) transporting UOES interceptors from the United States to a theater of operations will require significant airlift resources that may not be available unless UOES is afforded a high priority; (4) the cost estimate for the 40 UOES interceptors has increased from $80 million to $165 million, and THAAD project officials expect that estimate to rise to $220 million; and (5) delivery of the 40 UOES interceptors will be delayed due to increased delivery lead times and reduced fiscal year (FY) 1997 funding.

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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