Summary
In late 2002, terrorists fired surface-to-air missiles at an Israeli airliner departing from Mombasa, Kenya--the first time man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) had been used to attack commercial aircraft in a non-combat zone. Given concerns about the vulnerability of the commercial airline industry and the potential impact of an attack in the United States, the House Committee on Armed Services and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Aviation Subcommittee, requested that we conduct an assessment of the federal government's efforts to address the MANPADS threat against commercial aircraft, including its nature and extent; the Department of Defense's monitoring of Stinger missiles exported to other countries; and U.S. bilateral and multilateral efforts to address international MANPADS proliferation. After we began work on this assessment, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) took steps to initiate a 2-year system development and demonstration program for a counter-MANPADS system and awarded the initial contracts in January 2004. On December 4, 2003, we briefed Congress on our views about DHS's approach to developing the system. This report summarizes that information and transmits the portion of the briefing related to DHS's counter-MANPADS development effort. Our assessment of the other federal efforts to address the threat is ongoing, and we expect to complete our report in the spring of 2004.
DHS faces significant challenges in adapting a military counter-MANPADS system to commercial aircraft. These challenges include establishing system requirements, maturing technology and design, and setting reliable cost estimates. For instance, DHS has to account for a wide variety of aircraft types in designing and integrating the system. Our past work on the best practices of product developers in government and industry has found that the use of a knowledge-based approach is a key factor in successfully addressing such challenges. This approach includes the use of exit criteria or controls to ensure that sufficient knowledge has been attained at critical phases of the product development process. Based on input we provided during the course of our review, DHS updated its initial solicitation to incorporate these knowledge-based exit criteria. We think this a positive first step, and we are recommending that the Secretary of Homeland Security ensure that the knowledgebased approach is fully implemented throughout the course of its counter-MANPADS development program. DHS fully concurred.
Recommendations
Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change
from "In process" to "Implemented" or "Not implemented" based on our follow up work.
Director:
Team:
Phone:
Michael J. Sullivan
Government Accountability Office: Acquisition and Sourcing Management
(202) 512-3519
Recommendations for Executive Action
Recommendation: The Secretary of Homeland Security should fully adopt the knowledgebased approach, including the use of exit criteria, to help ensure that key decisions in DHS's effort to develop and demonstrate a counter-MANPADS system are based on sufficient information.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security: Directorate of Science and Technology
Status: In process
Comments: According to reports, in October 2006 DHS Science and Technology Directorate awarded three firms $7.4 million in combined contract awards to support efforts to counter threat posed to commercial by MANPADS. The three firms are L-3 Communications AVISYS Corporation, Austin TX; Northrop Grumman Space Technology, Redondo Beach, CA; and Raytheon Company, Tucson, AZ. These 3 firms will evaluate and demonstrate over an 18 month period emerging counter-MANPADS technology solutions that show the most promise in defeating the threat. DHS and DOD are to work closely together in selecting vendors to assess the maturity and effectiveness of relevant technologies, and application of resources.
