Joint Precision Approach and Landing System Nunn-McCurdy Breach Root Cause Analysis and Portfolio Assessment Metrics for DoD Weapons Systems. Volume 8.

摘要

This combined report deals with two issues. One is an analysis of the Nunn-McCurdy breach that occurred in the Joint Precision Approach and Landing System Increment 1A (JPALS Inc. 1A) acquisition program.1 This particularly ambitious program involved not only the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force but also civilian agencies, and it had international implications because it involved the widely used Instrument Landing System (ILS) a system dating back to the late 1920s that relies on radio beams to guide pilots to the runway when visibility is reduced. The advent of the Global Positioning System (GPS) provided an alternative to the ILS, but developing a GPS-based system that met the needs of diverse organizations posed significant challenges. Thus, given the challenges, the fact that a Nunn-McCurdy breach occurred is not surprising, especially since many aspects of the program were influenced by forces and factors outside the Department of Defense (DoD). That fact notwithstanding, the breach occurred and, by law, DoD had to respond. The next chapter of this report provides the root cause analysis as defined in the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act (WSARA) legislation.2 The second topic dealt with in the report pertains to the management of acquisition programs in DoD. The high cost of acquiring major items of equipment and the cost overruns that have occurred have prompted acquisition officials to ask for a way to analyze the progress of acquisition portfolios, that is, portfolios that include several individual acquisition programs, such as helicopters or satellites. Such a methodology would enable acquisition officials to monitor such factors as cost growth. Identifying cost growth across a suite of programs might enable those involved in acquisition to take preemptive steps and avoid cost overruns.