The Government Accountability Office has recommended that the Department of Defense analyze its portfolio of piloted fixed-wing tactical aircraft platforms and establish a requirement for the routine submission of information from that portfolio review to Congress.
The DOD integrated acquisition portfolio review should cover portfolio goals, potential tradeoffs and overlap, capability gaps, risk and schedule, cost and performance information on each platform, GAO said in a report published Tuesday.
According to the report, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy plan to invest approximately $20 billion per year in the acquisition and modernization of tactical aircraft over the next half-decade. This is largely due to the fact that most of the tactical aircraft — otherwise known as fighter and attack planes — were acquired in the 1970s and 1980s and are reaching the end of their lifespan.
Although the Pentagon has initiated measures to improve its portfolio management practices, the congressional watchdog found that the department has not yet performed an integrated acquisition analysis of its fighter plane portfolio.
“Without an analysis of the tactical aircraft platform portfolio and a requirement to report underlying information externally, DOD and Congress will continue to have limited information when making major investment decisions,” the report reads.
