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 1999-01-13 monographic deposited born digital 22 p. GA 1.13:NSIAD-99-26 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-99-26 P0b002ee180396cd4 f:ns99026 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-99-26 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-99-26 NSIAD-99-26 Army procurement Department of Defense contractors Military land vehicles Concurrency Schedule slippages Contract modifications Quality control Product evaluation Contract oversight Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles Letter Report NSIAD Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Army's Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) program, focusing on: (1) the causes and effects of the contractor's delays in delivering acceptable trucks; and (2) the Army's actions to mitigate corrosion problems on FMTV trucks.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) a combination of factors caused lengthy delays in delivering FMTV trucks; (2) the Army did not execute a low-risk acquisition strategy; (3) the contract contained an aggressive schedule for truck production considering the contractor's inexperience; (4) the inexperienced contractor had difficulty in both establishing a production line and producing trucks that could meet qualification and operational testing requirements; (5) despite the difficulties, the Army allowed production to continue and increase during testing; (6) as a result, many trucks were produced that required modification or repair; (7) because of production problems and competing funding requirements, the Army decided in 1994 to terminate the final year of the original 5-year FMTV production contract; (8) the Army requested only enough funding for fiscal year 1996 to terminate the program; (9) Congress, not wanting a break in the program, provided additional funding for that year, but not enough to fully fund the production quantities called for in the contract; (10) the Army and the contractor agreed to extend the contract and spread the final year's quantities over 3 years; (11) the Army determined that the first 4,955 trucks produced did not meet the FMTV's corrosion protection requirements; (12) corrosion was found on the cabs of trucks less than 3 years old that were still awaiting modification at the contractor's plant; (13) rather than making the contractor replace all the 4,955 truck cabs at a cost of $31 million, the Army accepted the contractor's proposal to repair the corrosion damage and to provide a 10-year warranty, not to exceed $10 million, against any future corrosion; (14) the Army also subjected one of the 4,955 trucks to a contract-specified corrosion test; (15) it failed with corrosion being detected in 60 areas; (16) following these events, the Army and the contractor agreed on modified production procedures to address the corrosion problem on subsequently produced trucks; (17) however, the Army and the contractor ultimately concluded that galvanized steel cabs may be required to meet the 10-year corrosion prevention requirement and the contract was modified to require galvanized steel cabs; (18) the contract's final 3,751 trucks were produced with galvanized steel cabs; (19) the Army agreed to pay up to $7 million for the galvanized steel cabs and other corrosion improvements; and (20) the Army did not test or require the contractor to provide a corrosion warranty on the 2,491 trucks produced prior to the switch to galvanized steel cabs. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-99-26/html/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-99-26.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-99-26/pdf/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-99-26.pdf GAO/NSIAD-99-26 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-99-26 Letter Report GAO/NSIAD-99-26; Army Medium Trucks: Information on Delivery Delays and Corrosion Problems; Army procurement Department of Defense contractors Military land vehicles Concurrency Schedule slippages Contract modifications Quality control Product evaluation Contract oversight Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles