Annual Weapons Acquisition Assessment - GAO Needs to Step Up Its Game
Abstract
For the better part of two decades, the annual Government Accountability Office (GAO) assessment of major defense acquisition programs (MDAPs) has been a gold standard for measuring the successes and failures of the acquisition system. Although GAO cost figures are not adjusted to account for evolving portfolio composition and other changes over time, these annual reports provide a set of readily available and consistently updated benchmarks that have helped set the framework for congressional reform initiatives since 2003. The first half-dozen reports documented skyrocketing acquisition costs, with unit cost growth approaching 50 percent on major programs, which resulted in total overruns of almost $300 billion by 2008. These reports also demonstrated the failure of the Department of Defense (DOD) to meet its own standards for technological and design maturity, a key factor in the enactment of the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act (WSARA). Subsequent reports documented the implementation of WSARAs requirements for starting acquisition programs on a sound footing, which showed that increased up-front investments resulted in improved knowledge levels and associated performance improvements (although there are indications that these gains could be endangered by more recent backsliding). Unfortunately, this years report suffers from serious analytic problems that must be addressed to ensure the continuing value of the series. The headline of the 2019 report is that after several years of effective cost controls, MDAP portfolio costs have started to grow again. According to GAO, the total cost of DODs weapon systems portfolio has grown by $8 billion in the past year even though the total number of programs has declined.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 2019
- Accession Number
- AD1122254
Entities
People
- Peter K. Levine
Organizations
- Institute for Defense Analyses