The services are also responsible for ensuring that these simulations are able to function within the JSIMS’ domain. DOD’s Expenditures on the ALSP Confederation May Not Be Cost-Effective

Concurrent with the development of JSIMS, DOD has decided to make improvements to the ALSP Confederation, the last of which is expected to be in place in 1999—at the same time that JSIMS should reach initial operational capability. We identified about $40 million that DOD plans to spend for ALSP Confederation improvements through fiscal year 1999. As is the case with JSIMS, there is no central funding line for the ALSP Confederation improvements. Consequently, management of the improvements has been fragmented and it is questionable whether the improvement plan is cost-effective. DOD said that it could not substantiate the $40 million we identified that the services are planning to spend on ALSP improvements. Scope and Methodology

To determine whether DOD is progressing with its development of JSIMS, we interviewed knowledgeable officials from the Defense Modeling and Simulation Office, Washington, D.C.; the Joint Staff, Washington, D.C.; the Joint Warfighting Center, Fort Monroe, Virginia; the JSIMS Joint Program Office, Orlando, Florida; and the services’ modeling and simulation management offices in Washington, D.C. Comments From the Department of Defense

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Why GAO Did This Study

GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) development of the Joint Simulation System (JSIMS), focusing on whether DOD: (1) is progressing with its development of JSIMS; and (2) decisions to improve the Aggregate Level Simulation Protocol (ALSP) Confederation are cost-effective.

What GAO Found

GAO found that: (1) JSIMS has not progressed beyond the conceptual stage due to internal disagreements within DOD; (2) further JSIMS development is contingent on the availability of about $416 million in funding; (3) DOD plans to spend at least $40 million through 1999 to improve ALSP before replacing it with JSIMS, but it is unclear whether that approach is cost-effective; (4) funding availability depends on how the services prioritize their contributions to JSIMS and ALSP; (5) the cost of ALSP improvements could increase because the planned improvements are service-specific and there is also no ALSP Central Funding; and (6) management of ALSP improvements is fragmented because DOD is not ensuring that the services will complete them and that the improvements are cost-effective.