United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office National Security and International Affairs Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2000-09-29 monographic deposited born digital 33 p. GA 1.13:NSIAD-00-197 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-197 P0b002ee1803741f2 f:ns00197 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-197 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-197 NSIAD-00-197 Weapons systems Military cost control Army procurement Life cycle costs Military aircraft Weapons research and development Apache Helicopter Abrams Tank Comanche Helicopter Crusader Self Propelled Howitzer Letter Report NSIAD Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Defense's (DOD) efforts to reduce weapon system operating and support costs, focusing on the Army's efforts to reduce: (1) projected operating and support costs for weapon systems under development; and (2) operating and support costs of fielded weapon systems.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) the Army is unlikely to be effective in significantly reducing the projected operating and support costs of its weapon systems under development because it has not established a sufficiently high priority for operating and support costs and has not put the needed mechanisms in place to achieve such reductions; (2) specifically, the Army: (a) has not assigned accountability for operating and support cost reductions nor established a requirement that each weapon system achieve a specific level of cost reductions; and (b) lacks complete and reliable data on the actual operating and support costs of the weapon systems that are being replaced; (3) without a requirement to achieve a specific level of operating and support cost reductions, program managers have little incentive or priority to trade off acquisition cost, schedule, and performance requirements during development to achieve long-term operating and support cost savings; (4) for the two developmental systems in GAO's review--the Comanche Helicopter and the Crusader Self-Propelled Howitzer--efforts are underway to improve the systems' supportability, reliability, and maintainability; (5) while these efforts should have an impact on the systems' operating and support costs, GAO was unable to link any actions or tradeoffs to specific reductions in operating and support costs; (6) further, the Army does not have complete and reliable data on the operating and support costs for systems that are being replaced; as a result, program managers lack the data needed to accurately project operating and support costs and to determine whether they can achieve DOD's goal of reducing new systems' life-cycle costs by 20 to 50 percent over those of the systems they are replacing; (7) in addition, because the Army has not historically budgeted or managed in this way, it has not collected and maintained data on all elements of each weapon system's operating and support costs; and (8) although the Army has identified some potential reductions, its operating and support cost reduction efforts for fielded systems lack the priority they need to be effective in meeting DOD's goals. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-197/html/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-197.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-197/pdf/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-197.pdf GAO/NSIAD-00-197 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-197 Letter Report GAO/NSIAD-00-197; Defense Acquisitions: Higher Priority Needed for Army; Weapons systems Military cost control Army procurement Life cycle costs Military aircraft Weapons research and development Apache Helicopter Abrams Tank Comanche Helicopter Crusader Self Propelled Howitzer