From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: 2021 Quick Look At DOD Weapon Systems Acquisitions Description: Each year, GAO provides a quick look assessing the Department of Defense’s major weapons programs. This year's assessment comes at a time of significant internal changes to DOD's weapons acquisitions process. We talk with GAO’s Shelby Oakley to learn more. Related GAO Work: GAO-21-222, Weapon Systems Annual Assessment: Updated Program Oversight Approach Needed Released: June 2021 [Intro music:] [Shelby Oakley:] DOD and the Congress have recognized that the length of time it takes to develop its weapons programs is just too long. [Holly Hobbs:] Hi and welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report. Your source for news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office--celebrating 100 years of fact-based, nonpartisan government oversight. I'm Holly Hobbs. Each year, GAO provides a quick look assessing the Department of Defense's major weapons programs. We look at things like investments, schedules and practices for acquiring and developing weapons systems. This year's assessment comes at a time of significant internal changes to DOD's weapons acquisitions process. Joining us to talk about our latest assessment is Shelby Oakley, an expert on DOD acquisition policy and a director in our Contracting and National Security Acquisitions Team. Thank you for joining us Shelby! [Shelby Oakley:] Thank you for having me. [Holly Hobbs:] So Shelby, this is our 19th annual quick look at DOD's Weapon Systems. What's the new news this year? [Shelby Oakley:] We have two areas that I'd want to highlight for you as new news-some of the concerns that we're raising about the new acquisition strategies and then also some of the early effects on COVID on the weapons programs. So last year we reported a little bit on how DOD is implementing this new framework. They call it an adaptive acquisition framework. And the intention is to really drive capabilities to the warfighter faster. [Holly Hobbs:] So what does that mean exactly? [Shelby Oakley:] This means that the acquisition approach that programs take is no longer a one size fits all type of approach. They can use different pathways based upon the unique characteristics of their program. And one of those pathways is called this middle tier acquisition pathway. And so this year we're raising some concerns about how well positioned these programs are to meet their cost and schedule outcomes, given some of the lack of knowledge that we're seeing. For example, half of the middle tier programs that we're reviewing lacked something called key business case documentation. These are things like approved requirements or risk assessments that are really important to getting a program off on the right foot. And then we took a look at what are they planning to acquire by the end of the program. And we're seeing that they're really only planning to acquire limited knowledge. And that adds a lot of risks to programs going forward. [Holly Hobbs:] You mentioned changes to DOD's acquisition framework. What issues are the changes meant to address? [Shelby Oakley:] DOD and the Congress have recognized that the length of time it takes to develop its weapons programs is just too long. This whole change is really intended to take a look at the policies and the practices that DOD has in place for its weapons programs and remove unnecessary bureaucracy that could affect how quickly a program could deliver a capability to the warfighter. Importantly, each of these pathways are now governed by a completely different sets of policies, and milestones, and cost, and schedule required reporting and whatnot. And so it's adding complexity to an already complex oversight process. [Holly Hobbs:] And, you mentioned that we looked at the pandemic’s effects. What did we find? [Shelby Oakley:] Unsurprisingly, almost all of the acquisition programs we surveyed reported challenges related to the pandemic. You know, these are things like inefficiencies on production lines because of slowdowns or shutdowns. And then, you know, reduced capacity, labor force, that kind of thing. And so while many programs did not identify what the eventual impact is going to be, about half of them did identify likely schedule delays. [Holly Hobbs:] So we've made recommendations to DOD because of the complexity of its process. Are any of the changes that they made under the new framework there to address our prior recommendations? [Shelby Oakley:] Yeah, absolutely. DOD has taken action on a lot of our recommendations. For example, we did some work in 2019 where we made some recommendations related to the oversight of these programs, and we suggested that DOD should require key business case documentation for these programs at the beginning of them. And they have taken action to put some of those requirements into the policy. That being said, over 114 recommendations remain open. And weapon acquisition continues to be on our High Risk List. So there's still a lot of ways to go for DOD. [Music] [Holly Hobbs:] So it sounds like the Department of Defense has developed a new framework that could allow DOD more flexibility in its acquisitions, which might reduce costs. But that this framework also adds new complexities in an already complex process. Shelby, did we make any recommendations to DOD for improving its oversight of weapon system development? [Shelby Oakley:] We did, in fact, this is the first time in 18 years of doing this product that we've made a recommendation in this report. What we found that DOD hasn't quite figured out is how is it going to track performance across and within various different pathways. And this is really important because we're still trying to get this eventual capability to the warfighter faster. So for decision-makers to understand the scale and the scope of the effort, including cost and schedule is going to be important to be able to keep track and provide that oversight that's needed. And so we're recommending that DOD take steps to develop a reporting strategy to account for these various different approaches that programs can take. [Holly Hobbs:] And last question, Shelby. What's the bottom line of this report? [Shelby Oakley:] The bottom line of the report is that even though DOD is taking these steps to try and bring, speed and innovation to its acquisition process, the fundamental need for knowledge remains. Knowledge about what you're trying to achieve, and what resources you're trying to achieve it within. Without that knowledge it's going to be a challenge to understand and know whether or not these significant changes that DOD has made over the past couple of years are going to have any effect. [Holly Hobbs:] That was Shelby Oakley talking about GAO's annual assessment of DOD's weapons systems. Thank you for your time, Shelby. [Shelby Oakley:] Thank you! [Holly Hobbs:] And thank you for listening to the Watchdog Report. To hear more podcasts, subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Google Play, and make sure you leave a rating and review to let others know about the work we're doing. For more from the congressional watchdog, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, visit us at GAO.gov