Summary: The Army and the Air Force are jointly developing the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS), which is designed to locate and track wheeled and track vehicles beyond the ground line of sight during either day or night and under most weather conditions. The Army is responsible for the development, test, production, and fielding of Joint STARS ground station modules. GAO found that the Army's strategy to accelerate production of the Common Ground Station--the next version of the ground station modules--unnecessarily risks millions of dollars on an unproven system. GAO believes that buying more systems than are needed for operational testing and evaluation significantly raises the risks of procuring a costly and ineffective system. The Army has accelerated the program and moved the first fielding date for the Common Ground Station from fiscal year 2002 to fiscal year 1998. However, the Army lacks analyses showing an urgent need to field the added capabilities of the Common Ground Station four years earlier than planned or showing that the expected benefits of accelerated procurement, prior to successful completion of operational testing and evaluation, outweigh the risks.
