Combat Identification Systems: Changes Needed in Management Plans and Structure.
Abstract
The military services are pursuing a number of solutions that should help reduce the occurrence of friendly fire incidents. One class of systems being pursued under Army and Navy led efforts are cooperative identification of friend or foe (1FF) question and answer (Q&A) systems. Because the services are approaching major decision points in the acquisition process for these systems, we reviewed their management plans and structures for cooperative 1FF Q&A systems development and integration. We conducted this review under our basic legislative responsibilities and are addressing this report to you because we believe it will be of interest to your committees. The Army and the Navy have been pursuing cooperative 1FF Q&A systems to help combat the problem of fratricide without having developed a cohesive management plan and structure. These systems could cost more than $4 billion. Currently, responsibility for the development of these systems is divided between the Army and the Navy. The two services have been pursuing systems based on different technologies without fully considering how and at what cost those systems will be integrated. For example, the Navy has developed a cost and operational effectiveness analysis (coEA) for air-to-air and ground-to-air systems, while the Army is just beginning to develop a COEA that will help determine what ground-to-ground and air-to-ground system(s) to pursue. The development of separate coEAs risks the development and procurement of systems that cannot be integrated, or at least cost effectively integrated, and may result in having to field two or more cooperative 1FF Q&A systems on the same equipment.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 14, 1995
- Accession Number
- ADA299003
Entities
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office