Army's Remotely Piloted Vehicle Shows Good Potential but Faces a Lengthy Development Program

Gao ID: C-MASAD-82-8 February 26, 1982

GAO evaluated the Army's prospects for successfully deploying the Remotely Piloted Vehicle (RPV) system in light of important upcoming program decisions. RPV is designed to acquire targets for artillery, to designate targets for precision-guided munitions and reconnaissance, and to extend the attack capability of division commanders beyond the forward edge of the battle area where ground-based systems cannot see and where the risk to piloted observation aircraft is high.

RPV promises to significantly enhance the Army's combat capability. However, the development of RPV has been slowed by technical problems and funding uncertainties created by the competing demands of Army programs. Technical problems with two key subsystems, the data link and the mission payload, have slowed the development of RPV. In order to minimize the effects of these difficulties, the Army has developed two additional data links, one for interim use during testing and the other as a possible alternate, although the alternate data link is not as capable as the original. Development of the mission payload subsystem has been hindered by difficulty in designing the software and problems with a key component. Despite these difficulties, RPV shows potential for good survivability, and planned system improvements promise to overcome some battlefield conditions that threaten to lower the system's effectiveness. The success of RPV depends largely on the progress achieved in miniaturizing the data link. However, the entire system requires considerable development and testing. If the research and development problems are deemed solvable, RPV will need a commitment to funding support so that its full potential can be realized.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Donald E. Day Team: General Accounting Office: Mission Analysis and Systems Acquisition Division Phone: (202) 275-3468


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