Defense Acquisitions: Joint Action Needed by DOD and Congress to Improve Outcomes

Abstract

DOD's acquisition of major weapon systems has been on GAO's high risk list since 1990. Over the years, Congress and DOD have continually explored ways to improve acquisition outcomes, including reforms that have championed sound management practices, such as realistic cost estimating, prototyping, and systems engineering. Too often, GAO reports on the same kinds of problems today that it did over 20 years ago. This testimony discusses (1) the performance of the current acquisition system; (2) the role of a sound business case in getting better acquisition outcomes; (3) systemic reasons for persistent problems; and (4) thoughts on actions DOD and Congress can take to get better outcomes from the acquisition process. This statement draws from GAO's extensive body of work on DOD's acquisition of weapon systems and the numerous recommendations GAO has made on both individual weapons and systemic improvements to the acquisition process.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 27, 2015
Accession Number
ADA625149

Entities

People

  • Paul L. Francis

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Best Practices
  • Congress
  • Cost Estimates
  • Department Of Defense
  • Electronic Mail
  • Engineering
  • Government Procurement
  • Governments
  • House Of Representatives
  • Military Acquisition
  • National Governments
  • Product Development
  • Systems Engineering
  • United States
  • United States Government
  • Weapon Systems

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management