1.) Major STARS Project Changes Make Comparisons of Costs and Schedules Difficult

The current STARS program is not the program that FAA contracted for in  1996. When FAA awarded the contract in September 1996, it estimated that  STARS would cost $940 million and be implemented at 172 facilities by  2005. The maintenance technicians also identified differences between  STARS and its backup system that made it difficult to monitor the system. Figure 3 provides the schedule for when each version  of STARS became or is scheduled to become operational at the first  facility. FAA Has Changed Its Official Estimates Twice

Since 1996, FAA acquisition executives have approved two changes to the  cost and schedule estimates for STARS. FAA Officials Said They Plan to Follow Agency Policy in Testing STARS and Addressing Software Problems but Acknowledge that Challenges Remain

FAA responded to the DOT IG’s concerns about the agency’s plans for  deploying STARS at Philadelphia by stating that FAA plans to follow its  policy for testing STARS and addressing critical software problems. While the  Memphis terminal facility has fewer and less complex air traffic control  operations than more congested facilities, such as the one in Philadelphia,  FAA changed its plans because meeting the commitment to deploy STARS  in Philadelphia would not allow enough time to test STARS first in  Memphis. Changes in the Schedule for Deploying STARS Led FAA to Implement Interim Projects

Because FAA was not able to deploy STARS according to its original  schedule, under which some terminals would have received the new  equipment by 1998, FAA implemented several interim projects. Under these  projects, FAA replaced failing equipment with new software, radar  displays, and other hardware so that the terminals could continue  operating while STARS was delayed. The cost for Common ARTS and the ARTS color displays attributable to  STARS delays was around $90.5 million.
What GAO Found

Since September 1996, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been developing the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) project to replace the outdated computer equipment that air traffic controllers currently use in some facilities to control air traffic within 5 to 50 nautical miles of an airport. Comparing the currently projected cost and deployment schedule for STARS with the original cost and schedule is difficult because the program presently bears little resemblance to the program envisioned in 1996. FAA has officially changed the cost, schedule, and requirements for STARS twice. In October 1999, FAA estimated the cost for its new approach at $1.4 billion, with a schedule to begin deploying STARS in 2002 at 188 facilities and complete installation at all facilities by 2008. The second change occurred in March 2002, when FAA lowered its estimate from $1.4 billion to $1.33 billion, reduced the number of facilities receiving STARS from 188 to 74, and changed the date to complete installation at all facilities from 2008 to 2005. FAA responded to the Department of Transportation Inspector General's concerns about the agency's plans for deploying STARS in Philadelphia by stating that it plans to follow its policy for testing STARS and addressing critical software problems. Because the FAA changed the date for deploying STARS at the first facility from 1998 to 2002, it had to implement interim systems to allow it to continue to meet demands for air traffic services. Specifically, it had to replace radar displays and other hardware that were difficult to maintain and had limited capacity to accommodate software that would allow FAA to add new features. FAA documents show the cost to implement these interim solutions when STARS was delayed was $90.5 million.