In Senate Report 114-49 accompanying S.1376, a bill for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016, the Senate Armed Services Committee included a provision for GAO to review the effectiveness of the current DOD space acquisition and oversight model and to evaluate what changes, if any, could be considered to improve the governance of space system acquisitions and operations. This report formally transmits information we provided in a briefing to the congressional defense committees on May 17, 2016, to meet our reporting requirement. This report addresses the following: (1) what organizations are responsible for DOD’s management and oversight of space system acquisitions; (2) what recommendations have been made for improvements to DOD’s management and oversight of space acquisitions over the last two decades, and what major changes have occurred in that time period; (3) what persistent challenges, if any, has DOD experienced in its management and oversight of space acquisitions, and what changes could be considered for improvement?
