The contractors explained in a report issued 60 days after  the June 1997 test that the test achieved its primary objectives, but that  some sensor abnormalities were noted. The Phase One Engineering Team was tasked by the National Missile  Defense Joint Program Office to assess the performance of TRW’s  software and to complete the assessment within 2 months using available  data. The team reported that although the software had weaknesses, it was well  designed and worked properly, with only some changes needed to  increase the robustness of the discrimination function. Based on its analysis, team members predicted that the software  would perform successfully in a future intercept test if target objects  deployed as expected. The Department of Defense's comments are reprinted in  appendix VII. The  primary limitation was that the team used Boeing- and TRW-processed  target data and TRW-developed reference data in determining the  accuracy of TRW reports for Integrated Flight Test 1A. Nichols’ 1998 Evaluation Methodology and Key Results

By 1998, the competitive phase of the exoatmospheric kill vehicle  contracts was over.
What GAO Found

The Department of Defense (DOD) awarded contracts to three companies in 1990 to develop and test exoatmospheric kill vehicles. One of the contractors--Boeing North American--subcontracted with TRW to develop software for the kill vehicle. In 1998, Boeing became the Lead System Integrator for the National Missile Defense Program and chose Raytheon as the primary kill vehicle developer. Boeing and TRW reported that the June 1997 flight test achieved its primary objectives but detected some sensor abnormalities. The project office relied on Boeing to oversee the performance of TRW. Boeing and TRW reported that deployed target objects displayed distinguishable features when being observed by an infrared sensor. After considerable debate, the program manager reduced the number of decoys planned for intercept flight tests in response to a recommendation by an independent panel. The Phase One Engineering Team, which was responsible for completing an assessment of TRW's software performance within two months using available data, found that although the software had weaknesses, it was well designed and worked properly, with only some changes needed to increase the robustness of the discrimination function. On the basis of that analysis, team members predicted that the software would perform successfully in a future intercept test if target objects deployed as expected.