Aquila Remotely Piloted Vehicle

Its Potential Battlefield Contribution Still in Doubt Gao ID: NSIAD-88-19 October 26, 1987

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO evaluated the Army's Aquila Remotely Piloted Vehicle Program, focusing on operational testing which assessed the program's: (1) ability to accomplish its mission in its planned operational environment; (2) key characteristics such as reliability and maintainability; (3) readiness for production; and (4) 3-hour flight endurance capability.

GAO found that: (1) problems surfaced during operational testing regarding mission effectiveness, susceptibility to detection, reliability, and maintainability; (2) test and evaluation deficiencies made it difficult to assess the Aquila's performance in its intended operational environment; (3) the Army is still assessing the Aquila's 3-hour endurance capability; (4) the Army plans to improve performance and capabilities by correcting problems disclosed in testing and developing an infrared sensor to replace the television sensor used during operational testing; and (5) the Army plans to reassess only target detection capability before making a production decision, although other mission performance problems include frequent inability to launch the aircraft and survivability.

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.

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