Defense Acquisitions: Assessment of Institute for Defense Analyses C-130 Avionics Modernization Program Analysis

Abstract : The Air Force s C-130 Avionics Modernization Program (AMP), which entered development in 2001, was to standardize and upgrade the cockpit and avionics for various configurations of the C-130 fleet. The C-130, a four-engine turboprop aircraft also known as Hercules that is used primarily for military transport, was originally designed in the 1950s. The AMP upgrades were intended to ensure that the C-130 can satisfy the navigation and safety requirements it needs to operate globally while at the same time reducing crew size by one. The program would also have replaced many systems for which manufacturers no longer exist a situation referred to as diminishing manufacturing sources. In 2007, the program experienced a critical breach of a statutory cost threshold,1 and in February 2012, the Department of Defense (DOD) proposed cancelling the C-130 AMP. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 (NDAA) stated that the Secretary of the Air Force may not cancel the program until 90 days after the Secretary provided the Congressional defense committees a cost benefit analysis conducted by the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA). The NDAA required the Secretary to seek an agreement with IDA to conduct an independent study of the costs and benefits of upgrading and modernizing the legacy C-130H airlift fleet via AMP compared to the costs and benefits of a reduced-scope program IDA began its work in March 2013 and produced the required study in September 2013, followed by a detailed annex in December 2013. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014 mandated that we review IDA s analysis.