Patriot Modernization: Oversight Mechanism Needed to Track Progress and Provide Accountability
Abstract
Why GAO Did This Study Patriot is a mobile Army surface-to-air missile system deployed worldwide to defend critical assets and forces. To respond to emerging threats and address a diverse set of capability needs, the Army has spent nearly $1.1 billion and requested $1.8 billion over the next 5 years to upgrade Patriot, begin developing a long-term radar solution, and integrate Patriot components into a central network and command and control systemthe Integrated Air and Missile Defense. A House report included a provision for GAO to assess, among other things, the status of the Patriot system and the Armys strategy for completing the upgrades. Among other things, this report examines (1) the extent to which the latest upgrades will address Patriot capability needs and (2) the level of oversight and accountability provided for the upgrade efforts. To conduct this review, GAO examined Army and program documents including test plans and schedules. GAO also interviewed Department of Defense (DOD) and other relevant officials. What GAO Recommends GAO recommends that the Secretary of Defense direct the Army to establish oversight mechanisms, similar to those for major defense acquisition programs, if additional development is required for upgrades operationally tested with PDB-8 and PDB-8.1. DOD partially concurred, focusing its response on plans to track other MDAPs, but did not clarify how or if it would track current PDB-8 and PDB-8.1 progress. GAO maintains DOD should provide oversight for any additional PDB-8 and PDB-8.1 development
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2016
- Accession Number
- AD1015139
Entities
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office