Friday, April 18, 2025
Friday, April 18, 2025
Key Issues Overhauling the FAR Troops in South Korea Overland AI
The Air Force released its annual report on the service's acquisition system yesterday, showing mixed results in its fiscal year 2018 efforts to improve performance.
The report aggregated FY-18 data from 30 acquisition category I and 27 ACAT II programs to gain an enterprise perspective. It looked at performance in three areas: cost estimates, schedules and technical achievement.
The service found that the total cost of the ACAT I portfolio -- which includes programs like the Global Positioning System III and Combat Rescue Helicopter -- rose by $1 billion or 0.4 percent to $239 billion. Eighteen programs saw their costs increase.
As a result, FY-18 "reversed what was a sustained trend of annual cost reduction," the report states.
The ACAT I portfolio also added 51 months to its total schedule in FY-18, amounting to a 0.4 percent increase from the schedule growth rate in the previous year. In the technical field, the report found that there were no changes to key performance parameters.
Within the ACAT II portfolio -- which includes programs like the Air Launched Cruise Missile and the A-10 Wing replacement -- the total cost rose by $436 million or 1.9 percent. Eight of 27 programs had increased their cost estimates.
The programs also added 72 months to their schedules at a rate of 5.1 percent over FY-17. The report did not contain an assessment of ACAT II technical performance.
Under its list of achievements, the Air Force noted reductions in program costs and schedule time lines in its future years projections as a result of FY-18 initiatives.
The service estimates savings of more than $17.8 billion, including $10 billion from the T-X program and $1.6 billion from the GPS IIIF.
Due to efforts made by Sept. 30, the service also anticipates stripping 62 years of unnecessary schedule from its programs, advancing toward its goal of 100 years.
"Speed, with discipline, is our top priority," the Air Force's acquisition chief Will Roper states in the report.