The Comanche program was established in 1983 to replace the Army’s light helicopter fleet. The contractor team of Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation and Boeing Helicopter Company were expected to design a low-cost, lightweight, advanced technology helicopter capable of performing the primary missions of armed reconnaissance and attack. Critical to achieving these capabilities are the successful development of advanced technologies, including composite materials, advanced avionics and propulsion systems, and sophisticated software and hardware. The Army must meet ambitious maintainability goals in order to (1) realize significantly lower operating and support costs predicted for this program and (2) achieve a wartime operational availability for the Comanche of 6 hours per day. In December 1994, the Secretary of Defense directed the Army to restructure the Comanche helicopter program as part of efforts to meet budgetary constraints. The Secretary’s restructure decision reduced funding for the program from $4.2 billion to $2.2 billion for fiscal years 1996 through 2001. In addition to extending the development phase by 3 years, it also called for two flyable prototypes to be produced and the Comanche production decision to be deferred. In response to the Secretary’s decision, the Army proposed a program restructure that would allow it to acquire, within the Secretary’s funding constraint, six aircraft in addition to the two prototypes by deferring developmental efforts to fiscal year 2002 and beyond. DOD approved the proposal in March 1995. The Army’s restructuring of the Comanche program continues risks (1) associated with making production decisions before knowing whether the aircraft will be able to perform as required and (2) of higher program costs. According to DOD’s April 1990 guidelines for determining degrees of concurrency, a program with high concurrency typically proceeds into low-rate initial production before significant initial operational test and evaluation is completed. Regarding the need to keep concurrency low, the guidelines note that establishing programs with no concurrency, or a low degree of concurrency, avoids the risks that (1) production items have to be retrofitted to make them work properly and (2) system design will not be thoroughly tested. As we recently reported, aircraft systems, including the T-45A and C-17, that entered low-rate initial production before successfully completing initial operational testing and evaluation experienced significant and sometimes costly modifications to achieve satisfactory performance. Under the Army’s restructured program, operational testing will not begin until after the low-rate initial production decision is made, continuing the risks associated with the highly concurrent Comanche program. In responding to the Secretary’s restructure decision, the Army proposed, and was subsequently granted approval, to buy six “early operational capability” aircraft, in addition to the two prototypes that were to be acquired under the Secretary’s decision. According to program officials, these aircraft are estimated to cost in excess of $300 million. The Army does not consider these aircraft as either prototype or low-rate initial production aircraft; however, program officials believe that when these aircraft are fielded, the Army will be able to better evaluate the Comanche’s mission capability. The Army intends to fund these aircraft by deferring additional developmental efforts to fiscal years 2002 and beyond. Under the Army’s restructured program, operational testing will not begin until well after funds are committed to buy production aircraft. Armed reconnaissance and attack mission equipment packages are to be integrated into the six early operational aircraft by fiscal year 2004. The Army plans to use these aircraft to start operational testing by about August 2005. However, long-lead production decisions are scheduled for November 2003, and low-rate initial production is planned to start in November 2004, about 9 months before operational testing begins. According to DOD’s guidelines, the amount of risk associated with concurrency can be limited by reducing production aircraft to the minimum necessary to perform initial operational testing. The Army maintains that under the stretched out program it can conduct initial operational testing with the six early operational aircraft. Because the restructure has provided the additional time and aircraft, the Army has an opportunity to significantly reduce or eliminate program concurrency and its associated risks by completing operational testing before committing funds to any production decisions. The Comanche was originally justified to the Congress as a relatively inexpensive aircraft. However, since 1985, the program has experienced significant increases in program acquisition unit cost. Funding reductions have caused the program to undergo significant restructuring, resulting in sharp decreases in planned acquisition quantities and lengthening of development schedules, thereby increasing Comanche program costs. In 1985, the Comanche had estimated total program acquisition costs of about $61 billion for 5,023 aircraft (or $12.1 million per aircraft). In 1992, we reported that (1) as of October 1991, the program acquisition unit cost had increased to $27.4 million, (2) acquisition quantities had been reduced to 1,292 aircraft, and (3) future increases in cost per aircraft were likely.As of February 1995, the Comanche’s estimated program acquisition unit cost was $34.4 million per aircraft, a 185-percent increase from the 1985 estimate. The estimated total program acquisition cost for the planned acquisition of 1,292 aircraft is now more than $44 billion. Both the Secretary’s decision and the Army’s restructure would extend the development program by about 3 years and, under either, increase the risk of higher total program cost and cost per aircraft. However, in reviewing the Army’s restructure proposal, DOD noted some concern over Comanche program costs for fiscal year 2002 and beyond and the large increase in investment programs projected to occur about that time. We are also concerned that the Army’s plan to defer additional developmental efforts to fiscal year 2002 and beyond may increase the risk that needed funds may not be available to perform the deferred developmental effort. The Comanche program’s uncertainties in software development and aircraft maintainability increase the risk that the aircraft will not perform successfully. We believe the restructuring provides additional time to resolve these issues before the decision to enter production is made. The Comanche will be the most computerized, software-intensive Army helicopter ever built. The Army estimates that about 1.4 million lines of code are required to perform and integrate mission critical functions. With additional ground support and training software to be developed, the total program will have more than 2.7 million lines of code. This compares to about 573,000 lines of code for the upgraded Apache attack helicopter with fire control radar. The Army estimates 95 percent of the Comanche’s total software will be written in Ada, a DOD-developed programming language. The Army plans to demonstrate initial software performance with the mission equipment package, which includes the flight control system, during first flight of the Comanche, scheduled for November 1995. The development and integration of on-board, embedded computer systems is a significant program objective. The Comanche’s performance and capability depend heavily on these systems and efforts have been ongoing to solve the problems associated with these systems. Nevertheless, (1) software development problems still exist with the Ada compilation system, (2) delays in software development and testing are occurring, and (3) improvements are needed in configuration management. If these issues are not resolved, the aircraft’s performance and capability will be degraded and first flight could be delayed. Almost all of the Comanche software will be developed in the Ada programming language; however, software developers are not using the same version of the Ada compilation system. The Ada compilation system translates Ada code into machine language so that software can be used by the Comanche’s computers. For example, it is being used to help develop software for use on the mission equipment package that is critical for first flight. Subcontractors and the contractor team should be using the same, qualified version of this compilation system to ensure effective software integration. However, fixes to individual compiler software problems are not being shared with all developers; therefore, they are not using a common compilation system. These problems have already delayed qualification testing of the compilation system by 1 year. The lack of a uniform, qualified compilation system among software developers could put first flight at risk, according to the Defense Plant Representative Office. Problems with software integration may show up once integration testing begins in the June to November 1995 time frame. If that occurs, there may not be time to fix problems prior to scheduled first flight. The program is experiencing high turnover of software engineers at one of the contractor team’s facilities. In its December 1994, monthly assessment report, the Defense Plant Representative Office, which is responsible for contract oversight, observed that high turnover of software personnel was putting scheduled first flight at risk. Loss of key personnel has already contributed to schedule slippage in several critical software development areas. Software development for the following areas has been affected: the airborne engine monitoring system, aircraft systems management, control database, and crewstation interface management. The contractor team has formulated a “get well” plan that is dependent on being able to hire additional personnel in these areas. However, hiring additional qualified personnel is difficult, according to the Defense Plant Representative Office, because employment would be short term. The flight control system software verification testing is also being delayed. As of February 8, 1995, Boeing had conducted only 163 of approximately 500 tests originally planned to be completed by that date. The subcontractor responsible for developing this software has been late delivering software for testing and has provided faulty software to Boeing, according to the Defense Plant Representative Office. Boeing established a recovery plan for this area that would have resulted in a completion date in March 1995—about a 1-month delay from the original plan. However, in February 1995, the contractor revised the recovery plan to reflect a completion date of July 1995—a 5-month delay. The flight control system is critical to first flight, according to the Defense Plant Representative Office. However, because of delays with verification testing, the Defense Plant Representative Office is concerned that the remaining verification testing, as well as, the validation and formal qualification testing will not be completed in a timely manner. As a result, first flight may be delayed.