Summary: GAO assessed the Navy's efforts to develop and acquire the Trident II system which consists of the Trident submarines, missiles and associated weapon equipment, and shore support facilities.
Originally, the Trident II Strategic Weapon System was to be introduced into the fleet by installing it on Trident submarines previously delivered with the Trident I System, and operational capability of the Trident II system was expected in late 1989 at an estimated cost of $39.9 billion. However, this schedule has been modified and the Trident II system will be introduced into the fleet at a slightly faster rate than originally planned, although the submarine construction costs will be increased by about $1 billion. GAO found that, while the Trident II weapon system development is directed toward improving the accuracy of submarine-launched ballistic missile systems, the accuracy cannot be fully demonstrated until operational missile tests are conducted from Trident II-configured submarines. Therefore, concurrency is planned among the development, testing, and production phases to achieve the planned deployment date, and the Navy believes that the risks associated with this concurrency are acceptable. GAO also noted that the Trident program has no established force level objective; and a number of indicators suggest that the force level objective is at least 20 submarines, which could increase the program cost by $15 billion. Finally, GAO stated that a case could be made for reporting the Trident I and II systems in only two Selected Acquisition Reports, because the manner in which they are reported now results in a fragmentation of program costs.
