Electronic Warfare:

DOD Did Not Meet Test Criteria Before Production of the Airborne Self-Protection Jammer

T-NSIAD-92-22: Published: Mar 25, 1992. Publicly Released: Mar 25, 1992.

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GAO discussed the Navy's Airborne Self-Protection Jammer (ASPJ) Program, focusing on the Department of Defense's (DOD) compliance with recommendations allowing further ASPJ procurement only if it meets its reliability growth criterion. GAO noted that: (1) the ASPJ reliability growth criterion specifies that the system must achieve a minimum mean time of 75 hours between failures; (2) ASPJ reliability growth testing conducted between August 1990 and March 1991 resulted in a mean time of 83.75 hours between failures; (3) the Navy circumvented DOD testing standards by excluding failures of ASPJ built-in test equipment in the reliability calculation; (4) the inclusion of those failures in calculating reliability resulted in a mean time of 9 hours between failures; (5) the Defense Acquisition Board approved ASPJ for further production, citing the need to avoid a production break and the use of other tests to reasonably ensure that the problems were corrected; and (6) additional testing conducted during the approved production indicated that software problems have not been corrected, and also revealed new system failures not previously identified. GAO believes that there should be no further procurement of ASPJ until operational test results demonstrate that the system's performance is satisfactory.

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