Defense Computers

This report focuses on the Logistics Systems Support Center's (LSSC) program for solving its Year 2000 computer system problem, which stems from the inability of computer programs to interpret the correct century from recorded or calculated data having only two digits to indicate the year. LSSC's Commodity Command Standard System supports the Army's wholesale logistics supply management business effort, which buys more than $23 billion worth of supplies and equipment each year for troops around the world. Unless LSSC overcomes its Year 2000 problem, the Commodity Command Standard System could malfunction or generate incorrect information, potentially jeopardizing military missions. GAO discusses the (1) status of LSSC's effort to correct Year 2000 problems and (2) appropriateness of LSSC's strategy for addressing Year 2000 problems affecting the Commodity Command Standard System.

GAO noted that: (1) the Year 2000 problem is one of the most comprehensive and complex information management projects ever faced by LSSC; (2) if not successfully completed, the procurement of weapon systems and their spare parts, accounting for the sales of Army equipment and services to allies, and the financial management of $9 billion of inventory could be disrupted; (3) as a result, it could be extremely difficult to efficiently and effectively equip and sustain the Army's forces around the world; (4) LSSC has completed several actions to address the CCSS Year 2000 problem; (5) a Year 2000 project manager and management staff have been designated, a project manager charter and schedule were developed, and supplementary contractor support was acquired to assist with assessment tasks; (6) regularly scheduled quarterly meetings are held by the Army Materiel Command (AMC) headquarters to report LSSC Year 2000 status; (7) these steps are compatible with the Department of Defense's (DOD) suggested approach and consistent with those found in GAO's five-phased approach for planning, managing, and evaluating Year 2000 projects; (8) although LSSC commenced its Year 2000 project over a year ago, there are several issues facing LSSC that, if not completely addressed, may result in the failure of CCSS to successfully operate at the year 2000; (9) LSSC has yet to completely address: (a) competing workload priorities and staffing issues; (b) the appropriate mix and scheduling of needed testing data and expertise as well as the development of test plans; (c) the scope and substance of written interface agreements with system interface partners to ensure that CCSS subsystems will be capable of exchanging data at the year 2000; and (d) contingency plan development to help assure that Army missions will be accomplished if CCSS is not fully available to users by the year 2000; (10) LSSC's risk of failure is increased because the agency has not attained the level of software development and maintenance maturity that would provide the foundation needed for successful management of large-scale projects such as the Year 2000 initiative; and (11) because CCSS is used to support military readiness, these critical elements must be resolved and aggressively pursued to enable LSSC to achieve a Year 2000 compliant environment prior to the year 2000.

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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