Air Force C-17 Embedded Computers

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the acquisition of embedded computers for the Air Force's C-17 aircraft program, focusing on: (1) the status of software development; (2) future hardware and software changes and upgrades; and (3) the Air Force's life-cycle software support strategy. GAO noted that: (1) software development problems still persist in the C-17 program that could affect planned program changes; (2) software problems have delayed C-17 flight testing because no delivered aircraft has fully operational software; (3) the prime contractor is resolving 500 known software deficiencies, but new deficiencies are being continually identified; (4) the Air Force will probably have to upgrade the mission computer to meet memory and processing capacity requirements; and (5) the Air Force may become dependent on the contractor for software support, since it is having trouble establishing an in-house software support capability.