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AIMD-95-12R 1 (1994-10-07)

handle is hein.gao/gaobackrg0001 and id is 1 raw text is: GAO United States General Accounting Office Washington, D.C. 20548 Accounting and Information Management Division B-248294 October 7, 1994 The Honorable William J. Perry The Secretary of Defense Dear Mr. Secretary: As part of our continuing examination of the Department of Defense's development and acquisition of embedded computers for major weapons systems, we have reviewed the Air Force's C-17 aircraft program for the Chairman, Subcommittee on Legislation and National Security, House Committee on Government Operations. Specifically, the Chairman asked us to (1) assess the status of software development, (2) identify future hardware and software changes and upgrades, and (3) evaluate the Air Force's life-cycle software support strategy. As envisioned, the C-17 will be the most computerized, software-intensive military transport aircraft ever built. It contains 57 computerized avionics subsystems and nearly 1 million lines of code to control basic functions, such as flight control, navigation, and cargo airdrop. In May 1992, we reported that the Air Force was encountering significant problems in developing software for the C-17.1 Specifically, the Air Force made a number of mistakes early in the program that affected its ability to manage and oversee software development. In addition, it allowed McDonnell Douglas, its prime contractor, to take shortcuts that increased the risk of continued software development, testing, and support problems. Our recently completed review showed that, while steady progress has been made since our 1992 report, many of the same software development problems still persist. As you know, however, the C-17 program is currently undergoing significant changes and it is difficult to determine how these problems will affect the program. It is our understanding that these changes will continue through 1994, and that Defense plans to decide in November 1995 (Milestone 1 Embedded Computer Systems: Significant Software Problems on C-17 Must be Addressed (GAO/IMTEC-92-48, May 7, 1992). GAO/AIMD-95-12R Air Force C-17 Embedded Computers