DEFENSE ACQUISTIONS. Improved Business Case is Needed for Future Combat System's Successful Outcome

Abstract

Today, about one-third of the way and $4.7 billion through FCS s development, the Army does not yet have the level of knowledge such as firm requirements and mature technologies it needed three years ago when it began product development. Army leadership started the program early as part of an overall effort to change the culture of the Army and believes that the risks in the program are manageable. While progress has been made and efforts are continuing in the requirements and technologies areas, the Army has not yet fulfilled the basic elements of a sound business case for a weapon system acquisition, including firm requirements, mature technologies, a sound strategy for attaining design and production maturity, realistic program cost estimates, and sufficient funding. The Army has made significant progress defining the initial FCS system of systems requirements, having reached agreement on nearly 11,500. However, FCS requirements are not yet matched with program resources because the Army still faces the daunting task of defining about 90,000 more requirements for FCS's 18 individual systems. Although firm requirements should have been established at the start of the program, the process of setting and refining FCS system-level requirements may not be complete until 2008. The initial system-level requirements defined to date are likely to change as technical feasibility and expected costs of the system-level requirements become clearer. The Army plans to trade off system requirements to offset technical risks and cost, but this flexibility is not unlimited as FCS overall capabilities are still expected to be as good as or better than those of the current Army forces in terms of lethality, survivability, responsiveness, and sustainability.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2006
Accession Number
ADA444646

Entities

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy
  • Cyber
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Aircrafts
  • Army Procurement
  • Commerce
  • Congress
  • Contracts
  • Cost Estimates
  • Data Compression
  • Detectors
  • Governments
  • Military Acquisition
  • Radio Equipment
  • Target Recognition
  • Test And Evaluation
  • United States Government
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Life Cycle Cost Analysis
  • Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.
  • Systems Analysis and Design