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Department of Agriculture, which administers agricultural
conservation programs a source of federal funding that can
complement EPA's water quality improvement efforts. USDA's
conservation programs provide billions of dollars in assistance to
farmers. In particular, through its Environmental Quality
Incentives Program, which is implemented by the Natural Resources
Conservation Service, USDA develops contracts with agricultural
producers to implement conservation practices on working
agricultural land to, for example, reduce soil erosion and nonpoint
source water pollution.
GAO reviewed the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) program
to determine whether: (1) planned testing would demonstrate
operational effectiveness before a significant number of units are
produced for deployment; and (2) missile target resources are
adequate to support testing plans. GAO noted that: (1) the current
THAAD program review and evaluation provides the Department of
Defense (DOD) with the opportunity to: (a) reduce risk and minimize
the number of initial quantities of unproven system hardware by
reexamining the schedule for operational testing and production;
and (b) ensure that realistic targets will be used for testing; (2)
the last approved THAAD acquisition plan calls for significant
production of deployment hardware almost 2 years before beginning
independent operational testing to assess the system's operational
effectiveness; (3) the Army maintains that it needs to buy a number
of THAAD systems during low-rate initial production to "ramp-up" to
the full rate of production; (4) delaying production until after
completing sufficient testing that provides assurance that key
performance requirements can be met reduces the risk of buying
unproven systems and facilitates production of proven systems at
more efficient rates; (5) a suitable target for testing the THAAD
system against longer range missiles does not exist, and funds have
not been requested for target development and production; and (6)
without a longer range test target to represent the more
formidable, higher velocity missiles that THAAD could face, the
system's operational effectiveness will remain in doubt and DOD
will not have reasonable assurance that it could rely on THAAD in
an actual conflict.
GAO provided information regarding the Air Force's progress in
achieving and sustaining full operational capability for the
Peacekeeper missile force. GAO found that the Air Force: (1)
delayed its plans to start full operational capability testing,
citing congressional directions, basing mode redirections, gaps
between developmental and operational flight testing, and
production delays; (2) believes that developmental flight testing
has demonstrated the system's capability; (3) plans to conduct only
three phase I flight tests a year until fiscal year 1994 in order
to meet the scheduled full operational capability milestone for the
Peacekeeper in Minuteman Silo Program; (4) plans phase II testing
to consist of 84 flight tests over 12 years; (5) plans to sustain
required alert rates for a force of 50 Peacekeeper missiles with an
inventory of 61 serviceable units and 20 units in repair; (6) had
accepted 81 units by December 1988, although only 71 were fully
operational; (7) improved its mean recycling time from 2,444 to
2,839 hours, but had not attained its planned level of 3,000 hours;
and (8) will have difficulty sustaining its average 30-day repair
time.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent
agency that works for Congress. The GAO watches over Congress, and
investigates how the federal government spends taxpayers dollars.
The Comptroller General of the United States is the leader of the
GAO, and is appointed to a 15-year term by the U.S. President. The
GAO wants to support Congress, while at the same time doing right
by the citizens of the United States. They audit, investigate,
perform analyses, issue legal decisions and report anything that
the government is doing. This is one of their reports.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent
agency that works for Congress. The GAO watches over Congress, and
investigates how the federal government spends taxpayers dollars.
The Comptroller General of the United States is the leader of the
GAO, and is appointed to a 15-year term by the U.S. President. The
GAO wants to support Congress, while at the same time doing right
by the citizens of the United States. They audit, investigate,
perform analyses, issue legal decisions and report anything that
the government is doing. This is one of their reports.
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