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US GAO report calls for greater UAS efficiencies
The US Government Accountability Office (GAO), self-described as "the investigative arm of Congress" has released a new report calling for greater commonalities and efficiencies among US Department of Defense Unmanned Aircraft Systems.
The 30 July 2009 report, GAO-09-520, was prepared for the Subcommittee on Air and Land Forces, Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives.
In the study, GAO investigators noted that, “from 2008 through 2013, the Department of Defense (DOD) plans to invest over $16 billion to develop and procure additional unmanned aircraft systems.”
“While proving successful on the battlefield, DOD’s unmanned aircraft acquisitions continue to incur cost and schedule growth,” they warned. “The cumulative development costs for the 10 programs GAO reviewed increased by over $3.3 billion (37 percent in 2009 dollars) from initial estimates—with nearly $2.7 billion attributed to the Air Force’s Global Hawk program. While 3 of the 10 programs had little or no development cost growth and 1 had a cost reduction, 6 programs experienced significant growth ranging from 60 percent to 264 percent.
These outcomes are largely the result of changes in program requirements and system designs. Procurement funding requirements have also increased for most programs, primarily because of increases in the number of aircraft being procured, changes in system requirements, and upgrades and retrofits to equip fielded systems with capabilities that had been deferred. Overall, procurement unit costs increased by 12 percent, with unit cost increases of 25 percent or more for 3 aircraft programs. Finally, several programs have experienced significant delays in achieving initial operating capability, ranging from 1 to nearly 4 years.”
GAO asserted that “Several of the tactical and theater-level unmanned aircraft acquisition programs GAO reviewed have identified areas of commonality to leverage resources and gain efficiencies,” pointing to examples including, “the Marine Corps chose to procure the Army’s Shadow system after it determined Shadow could meet its requirements, and was able to avoid the cost of initial system development and quickly deliver capability to the warfighter. Also, the Navy’s Broad Area Maritime Surveillance system will use a modified Global Hawk airframe.”
“However, other programs have missed opportunities to achieve commonality and efficiencies,” they cautioned. “The Army’s Sky Warrior—which is a variant of the Air Force’s Predator, is being developed by the same contractor, and will provide similar capabilities—was initiated as a separate development program in 2005. Sky Warrior development is now estimated to cost nearly $570 million. DOD officials continue to press for more commonality in the two programs, but the aircraft still have little in common.”
Even on programs where airframe commonality has been pursued, the report questions what it calls “unmanned aircraft programs and service-driven acquisition processes and ineffective collaboration are key factors that have inhibited commonality among subsystems, payloads, and ground control stations.”
Under its recommendations, the GAO investigators recommended that the Department of Defense: “(1) direct a comprehensive analysis and develop a strategy to gain commonality among current unmanned aircraft programs and (2) require new programs to demonstrate that opportunities for commonality were adequately assessed. “
“DOD agreed with the recommendations except for the need for a comprehensive analysis,” they said, adding, “GAO believes this recommendation remains valid.”
by Scott R. Gourley
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