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GAO-06-776R 1 (2006-06-01)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptatox0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Sai Accountability * Integrity * Reliability United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 June 1, 2006 The Honorable Jeff Sessions Chairman The Honorable Bill Nelson Ranking Minority Member Subcommittee on Strategic Forces Committee on Armed Services United States Senate Subject: Defense Acquisitions: Space System Acquisition Risks and Keys to Addressing Them On April 6, 2006, we testified before the subcommittee on the Department of Defense's (DOD) space acquisitions. In fiscal year 2007, DOD expects to spend nearly $7 billion to acquire space-based capabilities to support current military and other government operations as well as to enable DOD to transform the way it collects and disseminates information, gathers data on its adversaries, and attacks targets. Despite its growing investment in space, however, DOD's space system acquisitions have experienced problems over the past several decades that have driven up costs by hundreds of millions, even billions, of dollars; stretched schedules by years; and increased performance risks. In some cases, capabilities have not been delivered to the warfighter after decades of development. Within this context, you requested that we provide additional comments regarding the need for better program management, space acquisition policy, and DOD's Space Radar and Transformational Satellite Communications System acquisitions. Your specific questions and our answers are discussed below. Question: What are the top obstacles to achieving program success from the point of view of program managers? As part of a 2005 review' on program management best practices, we surveyed DOD's major weapon program managers, including some managing space programs, who cited the following as top obstacles to achieving successful outcomes in an open ended question: * funding instability (about 36 percent), * requirements instability (13 percent), 'GAO, Best Practices: Better Support of Weapon System Program Managers Needed to Improve Outcomes, GAO-06-110 (Washington, D.C.: Nov. 30, 2005).

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