Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Air Force's development and integration of five modernization programs for the data processing and communications components of the North American Aerospace Defense Command's Tactical Warning and Attack Assessment (TW/AA) system.
GAO found that: (1) after almost 8 years of development, no phase of the five modernization programs is operational; (2) the Air Force planned to spend more than $775 million through fiscal year 1989 on systems modernization, and estimated that it would need at least an additional $535 million and 5 more years to complete the modernization it initially planned to complete by 1987; (3) the Air Force's large, complex integration management structure fragmented management functions, responsibility, and accountability among numerous commands; (4) the Air Force's cumbersome and lengthy resolution process has not been able to resolve such critical integration problems as the use of different communications standards and attack scenarios among TW/AA subsystems; (5) those unresolved problems could disrupt the Air Force's ability to effectively integrate the modernized subsystems into TW/AA; (6) subsystem development and integration occurred amid constant management change, with frequent turnover among program managers, commanders, principal deputies, and command managers; and (7) the modernization programs established a pattern of deferring, rather than solving, the system development problems they identified. GAO believes that the Air Force's cost and schedule estimates for the modernization programs are questionable because long-standing, serious integration problems remain unresolved.
