GAO calls for improvements to Defense acquisition system

The Defense Department must develop more realistic performance plans and budget baselines for major weapons procurements, a watchdog official told House lawmakers on Wednesday.

A number of Defense programs have entered the systems development phase with immature technologies and then moved into the systems demonstration period with low levels of design stability, according to Mike Sullivan, director of acquisitions and sourcing management at the Government Accountability Office.

The result, he said, has been programs that cost more and take longer to deliver to soldiers on the battlefield.

"These outcomes mean that other critical defense and national priorities go unfunded and warfighters go without the equipment they need to counter ever-changing threats that they face," Sullivan told the members of the House Armed Services Committee's new Defense Acquisition Reform Panel during its inaugural hearing. "This condition is unacceptable."

Earlier this week GAO reported that research and development costs of 96 major weapons programs had increased 42 percent more than originally estimated. The collective cost growth of these programs was $296 billion and the average delay in delivering promised capabilities was 22 months, the report found.

For example, the department's two most expensive programs -- the multiservice Joint Strike Fighter and the Army's Future Combat Systems -- are now projected to cost 38 percent and 45 percent more respectively than original estimates, GAO said.

Auditors blamed the skyrocketing costs on shifting technical requirements and a shortage of qualified government personnel available to oversee and manage the programs.

But, Sullivan said Defense could improve the process by developing realistic business cases for each project and updating them as conditions evolve; limiting time and requirements for product development to manageable levels; and committing to funding a program fully once it is approved.

"We believe that significant improvement in the acquisition of weapon systems is possible and that the ability to measure knowledge, processes and outcomes is critical to achieving that improvement," Sullivan told the panel.

Lawmakers worried that the gap between the original and adjusted baselines of some weapons systems was hiding the true cost of programs and tying appropriators' hands.

"For us to make clear-eyed decisions about what to do, we need better data," said Rep. Rob Andrews, D-N.J., chairman of the panel.

David Ahern, the Pentagon's director of portfolio systems acquisition, acknowledged that in recent years, "the discipline in looking at the system … was not as vigorous as it is now."

But, he rejected the idea that Defense procurement processes are fundamentally broken.

Ahern said the latest version of Department of Defense Instruction 5000.02, a document that guides the acquisition process, has helped ensure that programs have a solid foundation and stay within cost and schedule parameters.

"It will take time for us to fully realize the benefit of these policy initiatives," Ahern said. "However, we will continue to look for opportunities to improve the Defense acquisition system."