2011 Defense Acquisitions: Assessments of Selected Weapon Programs by the GAO - Army, Navy, Air Force Weapons Systems including UAS, Missiles, Ships, F-35, Carriers, NPOESS, Osprey

This is GAO’s ninth annual assessment of Department of Defense (DOD) weapon system acquisitions, an area that is on GAO’s high-risk list. The report is in response to the mandate in the joint explanatory statement to the DOD Appropriations Act, 2009. It includes observations on the performance of DOD’s 2010 portfolio of 98 major defense acquisition programs; data on selected factors that can affect program outcomes; an assessment of the knowledge attained by key junctures in the acquisition process for a subset of 40 programs, which were selected because they were in development or early production; and observations on the implementation of acquisition reforms. To conduct this review, GAO analyzed cost, schedule, and quantity data from DOD’s Selected Acquisition Reports and collected data from program offices on performance requirements and software development; technology, design, and manufacturing knowledge; and the implementation of DOD’s acquisition policy and acquisition reforms. GAO also compiled one- or two-page assessments of 71 weapon programs. Since 2008, DOD’s portfolio of major defense acquisition programs has grown from 96 to 98 programs, and its investment in those programs has grown to $1.68 trillion. The total acquisition cost of the programs in DOD’s 2010 portfolio has increased by $135 billion over the past 2 years, of which $70 billion cannot be attributed to quantity changes.

Systems covered include:

Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS), C-5 (C-5 RERP), C-130 Avionics (C-130 AMP), CH-53K - Heavy Lift Replacement, CVN 21 Future Aircraft Carrier, DDG 1000 Destroyer, E-2D Advanced Hawkeye (E-2D AHE), Excalibur Projectile, Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV), F-35 Lightning II (Joint Strike Fighter), Family of Advanced Beyond Line-of-Sight Terminals (FAB-T), Global Hawk (RQ-4A/B), Global Positioning System (GPS) IIIA, GPS III OCX Ground Control Segment, Gray Eagle, Increment 1 Early-Infantry Brigade Combat Team (E-IBCT), Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM), Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV), Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense (JLENS), Joint Precision Approach and Landing System (JPALS), Airborne and Maritime/Fixed Station Joint Tactical Radio System (AMF JTRS), Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) Ground Mobile Radios (GMR), Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) Handheld, Manpack, and Small Form Fit (HMS), Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), Littoral Combat Ship-Mission Modules, LHA Ship, Maritime Prepositioning Force (Future)/Mobile Landing Platform, Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), Navy Multiband Terminal (NMT), P-8A Poseidon, PATRIOT/Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) Combined Aggregate, Program (CAP) Fire Unit, Reaper Unmanned Aircraft System, Small Diameter Bomb (SDB), Increment II, Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS), Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) Missile (ERAM), Vertical Take-off and Landing Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (VTUAV), Virginia Class Submarine (SSN 774), Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) Increment 2, Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) Increment 3, Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR), B-2 Defensive Management System (DMS) Modernization, B-2 Extremely High Frequency (EHF) SATCOM Capability, Increment 2, BMDS: Airborne Laser Test Bed (ALTB), BMDS: Flexible Target Family (FTF), C-27J Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA), DDG 51 Destroyer, Defense Weather Satellite System (DWSS), Enhanced Polar System (EPS), F-22A Raptor, Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV), KC-X Program, National Polar-orbitng Operational Environmental Satellite System, (NPOESS), Navy Unmanned Combat Air System Aircraft Carrier Demonstration (UCAS-D), Nett Warrior Increment I, Ohio-Class Replacement (OR)/Sea Based Strategic Deterrent, Space Fence, Stryker Modernization (SMOD), V-22 Joint Services Advanced Vertical Lift Aircraft (Osprey), Presidential Helicopter (VXX), more.