Summary

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO evaluated cost, schedule, and test plans for the Army's special operations forces (SOF) helicopter program, focusing on: (1) the Army's planned concurrency of developmental and operational testing with actual production; and (2) current cost estimates for the program.

GAO found that: (1) although current acquisition policies and procedures called for developmental and operational testing prior to full-scale production, the Army planned initial production of 22 SOF helicopters concurrent with developmental testing; (2) the Army planned to produce and deliver 53 of the planned 74 SOF aircraft before conducting operational testing; (3) the Army planned to test and field SOF helicopters that did not possess all of the equipment necessary to satisfy operational capability requirements; (4) the Army identified risks involving avionics mission processor development, radar system certification, performance of government-furnished equipment, and retrofit costs, but did not address the risk associated with concurrent production and testing; and (5) program costs could greatly exceed current estimates due to the Army's exclusion of many costs in the estimates, future cost growth, and concurrent testing and production plans.