Summary: The Air Force has spent about $1 billion to replace 108 outdated logistics computer systems with 14 new ones. According to the Air Force, six of the 14 are still being developed, one has been canceled, and seven have been delivered. Although GAO has not assessed whether the delivered systems were cost effective, one system delivered in 1987 at a cost of $21 million--$8.9 million below estimate--was ineffective and should be discontinued. The Air Force itself has not thoroughly evaluated the benefits of any of the delivered systems and will have a hard time doing so because it lacks adequate performance measures. Further, the Pentagon has not yet done the analyses needed to evaluate ongoing logistics systems, select the most promising, and curtail the rest. These analyses must be completed before the Pentagon can determine whether the Corporate Information Management Initiative, begun in 1989 to improve business operations in functional areas, including logistics, will affect the modernization projects.
