Air Force computer modernization project to not be completed on time

Computer modernization won’t be done in 2016 as hoped.

BEAVERCREEK — An Air Force computer modernization project that congressional auditors have criticized for being over budget and behind schedule is approaching $1 billion spent and the current work won’t be completed in 2016 as had been hoped, the Air Force said Thursday.

The service’s cutoff of funding on Wednesday for a troubled phase of the Expeditionary Combat Support System project will delay completion of the overall project, Air Force spokeswoman Jennifer Cassidy wrote in an email response to questions from the Dayton Daily News.

The Air Force said it has spent $986.5 million so far on the ECSS project, which is designed to replace old computer systems across the service with a single, integrated logistics and financial administrative network for transportation, supply, maintenance and repair, engineering and acquisition.

The new, estimated date of completion and what it will cost to finish will be part of an Air Force reassessment of the ECSS project, including the Pilot D systems integration phase for which funding was halted Wednesday after four months of work in that phase. The Air Force said problems with prime contractor Computer Sciences Corp.’s management had caused delays and increased costs for the project.

The Air Force said it is committed to the project and is continuing to fund Computer Sciences’ ongoing Pilot C phase, which involves testing of software for logistics systems.

The project supports about 500 jobs locally and 800 to 1,100 across the country, officials have said.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, sent a joint letter Thursday to Air Force Secretary Michael Donley urging him to continue the Air Force’s support of the ECSS program and to keep those information technology jobs in the Dayton area.

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