Department of Defense releases Selected Acquisition Reports; Department of Defense news release

Defense AT&L, July-August, 2008

The Department of Defense (DoD) has released details on major defense acquisition program cost, schedule, and performance changes since the September 2007 reporting period. This information is based on the Selected Acquisition Reports submitted to the Congress for the December 2007 reporting period.

SARs summarize the latest estimates of cost, schedule, and performance status. These reports are prepared annually in conjunction with the president's budget. Subsequent quarterly exception reports are required only for those programs experiencing unit cost increases of at least 15 percent or schedule delays of at least six months. Quarterly SARs are also submitted for initial reports, final reports, and for programs that are rebaselined at major milestone decisions.

The total program cost estimates provided in the SARs include research and development, procurement, military construction, and acquisition-related operation and maintenance (except for pre-Milestone B programs, which are limited to development costs pursuant to 10 U.S.C. [section] 2432). Total program costs reflect actual costs to date as well as future anticipated costs. All estimates include anticipated inflation allowances.

The current estimate (shown above) of program acquisition costs for programs covered by SARs for the prior reporting period (September 2007) was $1,702, 133.0 million. After subtracting the costs for two final reports for Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) and Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) and adding the costs for two new programs, WIN-T Increment 1 and WIN-T Increment 2, from the September 2007 reporting period, the adjusted current estimate of program acquisition costs is $1,657,829.4 million. For the December 2007 reporting period, Chemical Demilitarization-Chemical Materials Agency Newport (Chem Demil-CMA Newport) was consolidated into Chem Demil-CMA.

For the December 2007 reporting period, there was a net cost decrease of $ 14,855.9 million or -0.9 percent for the programs that have reported previously. The cost decrease was due primarily to a net decrease in planned quantities (-$7,765.0 million), the application for lower escalation rates (-$4,300.5 million), and a net decrease in support requirements (-$9,928.1 million). These decrease were partially offset offset by additional engineering changes (hardware/software) ( $1,856.6 million) and a net increase in program cost estimates ( $6,233.9 million). Further details of the most significant changes are summarized below by program.

There are three programs with Nunn-McCurdy unit cost breaches to their current Acquisition Program Baseline: AEHF (Advanced Extremely High Frequency Satellite), JAVELIN, and JTRS GMR (Joint Tactical Radio System Ground Mobile Radios). That is, the program acquisition or average procurement unit costs for these programs have increased by 15 percent or more to their current APB. For significant Nunn-McCurdy breaches, notification and unit cost breach information will be provided to the Congress, but there are no certification requirements.

New SARs

(As of December 2007)

The Department of Defense has submitted initial SARs for the following programs (see top chart) for the December 2007 reporting period. These reports do not represent cost growth. Baselines established on these programs will be the point from which future changes will be measured.

Summary Explanations of Significant SAR Cost Changes as of Dec. 31, 2007

Army

ATIRCM/CMWS (Advanced Threat Infrared countermeasure/Common Missile Warning System)--Program costs decreased $851.0 million (-15.0 percent) from $5,666.9 million to $4,815.9 million, due primarily to quantity decreases of 634 B-kits from 1,710 to 1,076 B-kits (-$675.4 million), reduced support costs resulting from the B-kit quantity reduction -($186.5 million), economic savings from completing the buy of A-kits by fiscal 2010 (-$52.2 million), and unit cost reductions from accelerating the buy of CMWS mission kits (-$52.2 million). These savings were partially offset by increased costs of adding a fifth Electro-Optic Missile Sensor to each CMWS ( $181.6 million) and supporting integration of Inertial Navigation System data into CMWS in fixed wing aircraft applications ( $14.7 million).

FBCB2 (Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below)--Program costs increased $685.0 million ( 25.5 percent) from $2,686.1 million to $3,371.1 million, due primarily to a quantity increase of 28,895 systems from 44,568 to 73,463 systems to support Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation enduring Freedom ( $683.0 million) and associated schedule, engineering, and estimating allocations* ( $99.0 million). There was an addition increase in other support for retrofit of Type I encryption for the increased quantities ( $114.1 million). These increases were partially offset by lower unit costs from beneficial contract pricing of the increased quantities (-$131.3 million) and lower estimates for the aviation A-kits (i.e., modification kits) based on current contract data (-$45.7 million).