Missile Defense: European Phased Adaptive Approach Acquisitions Face Synchronization, Transparency, and Accountability Challenges

Abstract

In response to changing threats in the region and new opportunities created by advances in missile defense technology, in September 2009 the President announced a new policy for missile defense of Europe, called the European Phased Adaptive Approach, or EPAA. DOD has emphasized the benefits of a policy of regional phased adaptive approaches, stating that it does not require a globally integrated missile defense architecture and that it relies on proven solutions. According to DOD, because EPAA is a policy, not a separate missile defense acquisition program, DOD intends to use the department's existing processes for managing missile defense acquisitions and the existing BMDS element-based acquisition approach for missile defense system elements-not one specific to EPAA-to approve system acquisitions. However, we found that DOD has not fully implemented a management process that synchronizes EPAA acquisition activities and ensures transparency and accountability. DOD has made progress in acquisition planning for technology development and systems engineering and testing and partial progress in defining requirements and identifying stakeholders but has not yet developed an EPAA acquisition decision schedule or an overal EPAA investment cost. The limited visibility into the costs and schedule for EPAA and the lack of some key acquisition management processes we found reflect the oversight challenges with the acquisition of missile defense capabilities that we have previously reported. The consequences of these issues have included: - limited means of independently assessing progress and a limited basis for oversight and - going into production before fully demonstrating system performance, leading to rework, cost increases, delays, and uncertainties about delivered capabilities.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 21, 2010
Accession Number
ADA535111

Entities

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Human Systems
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accountability
  • Acquisition
  • Ballistic Missiles
  • Battle Management
  • Command And Control
  • Congress
  • Contractors
  • Contracts
  • Defense Systems
  • Department Of Defense
  • Governments
  • Manufacturing
  • Military Acquisition
  • Personnel Management
  • Systems Engineering
  • Test And Evaluation
  • United States Government

Readers

  • Adaptive Control and Estimation with Uncertainty in Dynamic Systems.
  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Missile Defense Systems.