Global Positioning System: A Comprehensive Assessment of Potential Options and Related Costs is Needed

United States. Government Accountability Office.

United States. Government Accountability Office.

关键词: Government accountability -- United States.;    space;    national defense;    global positioning system;    letter report;   

RP-ID  :  GAO-13-729
RP-ID  :  657494

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO found the Air Force, the military branch responsible for Global Positioning System (GPS) acquisition, in its report on Lower Cost Solutions for Providing Global Positioning System Capability, broadly addressed all four congressional requirements--system capability, implementation approaches, technical and programmatic risks, and estimated costs--for each option presented for the space segment. GPS consists of three segments--space, ground control, and user equipment--but the study only addressed the space segment, which accounts for the largest share of total GPS costs--more than half--in the Air Force's current budget. The Air Force identified and assessed nine options for future GPS space segments, ranging in cost from $13 billion to $25 billion from fiscal year 2013 through 2030. The report assessed each option based on a constellation or collection of 30 total satellites instead of 24, which is the Air Force's baseline GPS requirement for accuracy. This increase in total satellites raises an issue with the constellation size the Air Force intends to support in the future. Air Force officials stated that the cost analyses supporting the nine options were high-level cost estimates. Although this may be expected given the time constraints and other limitations of the study, these estimates are not at a level that would support future GPS investment decisions."