	Background

In late 2003, recognizing that the current approach to managing air  transportation is becoming increasingly inefficient and operationally  obsolete, Congress created JPDO to plan NGATS, a system intended to  accommodate the threefold increase in air traffic demand expected by  2025. For  example, the Department of Defense has deployed “network centric”  systems, originally developed for the battlefield, that are being considered  as a conceptual framework to provide all users of the national airspace  system—FAA and the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security— with a common view of that system. The Director of JPDO  reports to the FAA Administrator and to the Chief Operating Officer within  ATO. JPDO Has Made Progress in Planning for NGATS

JPDO has developed a framework for planning and coordination with its  partner agencies and nonfederal stakeholders that is consistent with the  requirements of Vision 100 and with several practices that our work has  shown can facilitate federal interagency collaboration and enterprise  architecture development. This framework includes an integrated plan, an  organizational structure, and an enterprise architecture. This structure  includes a federal interagency policy committee, an institute for  nonfederal stakeholders, and integrated product teams (IPT) that bring  together federal and nonfederal experts to plan for and coordinate the  development of technologies that will address JPDO’s eight broad  strategies. JPDO’s senior policy committee was formed and is headed by the  Secretary of Transportation, as required in Vision 100. Figure 1 shows JPDO’s position within FAA and the JPDO structures that  bring together federal and nonfederal stakeholders, including the Institute  and the IPTs. JPDO Faces Leadership, Resource, and Commitment Challenges as It Moves Forward with Planning for NGATS

JPDO faces several challenges in planning for NGATS, including  addressing leadership vacancies, leveraging resources and expertise from  its partner agencies, and convincing nonfederal stakeholders that the  government is fully committed to NGATS. Our work has shown that,  to overcome barriers to interagency coordination, committed leadership  by individuals at the top of all involved organizations is critical. First, JPDO’s partner agencies have a variety of missions and priorities in  addition to NGATS, and their priorities may change. Second, JPDO may have difficulty leveraging its partner agencies’  resources and expertise because it does not yet have formal, long-term  agreements with the agencies on their roles and responsibilities in creating  NGATS. FAA Faces Institutionalization, Expertise, and Resource Challenges as It Transitions to NGATS

FAA faces challenges in implementing NGATS, including institutionalizing  recent improvements in its management and acquisition processes,  acquiring expertise to implement highly complex systems, and achieving  cost savings to help fund NGATS technologies. Despite Recent Process Improvements, FAA Faces Challenges in Obtaining the Expertise Needed to Implement a System as Complex as NGATS

In the past, a lack of expertise contributed to shortfalls in FAA’s  management of ATC modernization projects. Recognizing the complexity of the NGATS implementation effort and the  possibility that FAA may not have the in-house expertise to manage it  without assistance, we have identified potential approaches for  supplementing FAA’s capabilities.
Why GAO Did This Study

The health of our nation's air transportation system is critical to our citizens and economy. However, the current approach to managing air transportation is becoming increasingly inefficient and operationally obsolete. In 2003, Congress created the Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) to plan for and coordinate, with federal and nonfederal stakeholders, a transformation from the current air traffic control (ATC) system to the "next generation air transportation system" (NGATS). Housed within the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), JPDO has seven partner agencies that make up JPDO's senior policy committee: the Departments of Transportation, Commerce, Defense, and Homeland Security; FAA; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. This testimony, which provides preliminary results from GAO's ongoing work on JPDO, provides information on (1) the status of JPDO's efforts to plan for NGATS, (2) the key challenges facing JPDO as it moves forward with its planning efforts, and (3) the key challenges facing FAA as it implements the transformation while continuing its current operations. The statement is based on GAO's analysis of JPDO documents, interviews, and the views of a panel of experts, as well as on past GAO work.

What GAO Found

JPDO has developed a framework for planning and coordination with its federal partner agencies and nonfederal stakeholders that is consistent with the requirements of its authorizing legislation--Vision 100--and with several practices that our previous work has shown can facilitate federal interagency collaboration and the development of an enterprise architecture (i.e., system blueprint). JPDO's framework includes an integrated plan that provides a vision for NGATS, an organizational structure and processes for leveraging the resources and expertise of federal and nonfederal stakeholders, and an enterprise architecture that defines the specific requirements for NGATS. As JPDO moves forward, it will face leadership, leveraging, and commitment challenges. Currently, JPDO lacks a permanent director and a permanent chairperson of its senior policy committee to provide the leadership needed to overcome barriers to interagency coordination. In addition, despite early successes, JPDO may have difficulty continuing to leverage its partner agencies' resources and expertise for NGATS because these agencies have missions and priorities in addition to NGATS and JPDO does not yet have signed, long-term agreements with the partner agencies on their respective roles and responsibilities. Finally, JPDO faces the challenge of convincing nonfederal stakeholders that the government is fully committed to implementing NGATS, given that, in some instances, it has discontinued work on new technologies for the national airspace system. FAA faces challenges in institutionalizing recent improvements in its management and acquisition processes, as well as in obtaining the expertise and resources necessary to implement NGATS. First, institutionalizing FAA's process improvements is critical to successfully implementing NGATS. Second, FAA may lack the expertise needed to manage the NGATS effort. GAO has identified two potential approaches for FAA to supplement its capabilities that FAA is considering. Third, achieving cost savings is critical to funding the implementation of NGATS.