Summary: In response to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) procurement of new airport surface detection equipment (ASDE), specifically: (1) FAA procedures to determine its ASDE-3 operational requirements and specifications; (2) the adequacy of FAA support for those requirements; (3) the extent of production risk inherent in the ASDE-3 specification; and (4) the accuracy of the FAA ASDE-3 benefit-cost study regarding planned quantities and locations for the new equipment.
GAO found that: (1) FAA adhered to Department of Transportation (DOT) and Office of Management and Budget guidance and policy regarding management decisions and approval in developing the ASDE-3 operational requirements; (2) FAA based its operational requirements and technical specifications on mission needs; (3) the specifications met updated operational requirements and posed reasonable schedule and performance risks; (4) the contractor experienced some scheduling problems and delayed its first unit testing by three weeks; (5) the display processor and remote maintenance will pose performance risks until the commencement of system testing in 1987; (6) because the contractor's monitoring system did not produce sufficient data, FAA oversight of production risks was hampered; (7) although the FAA program was cost-justified, its methodology did not accurately estimate the safety benefits; and (8) FAA does not have adequate data to accurately estimate passenger time savings and safety benefits.
