Battlefield Automation

One of the Army's top priorities is a program to digitize the battlefield by creating a vast network of computers, sensors, and communications that would provide a common picture of the battlefield from soldier to commander simultaneously. The Army's plan, which is estimated to cost $4 billion, contains many risks and lacks specific, measurable goals for the series of large-scale experiments that are to be done. The Army plans to conduct a series of experiments from 1995 to 1997, including a brigade-level experiment in 1997 at a cost of $258 million, without having had a successful battalion-level experiment. In fact, a battalion-level experiment in 1994 failed to meet Army expectations. Specific, measurable goals are needed to evaluate the achievements of each experiment, and they should be met before proceeding to the next experiment. Otherwise, the Army risks additional investments costing $397 million for digital systems needed to conduct increasingly larger scale experiments through fiscal year 1999. On the basis of Army estimates, the investment required to digitize a 10 division Army could run as high as $4 billion. Also, because Congress has directed the Army to include the Marine Corps in its plan, Defense Department funding for the Marine Corps must be identified and ensured to solidify its participation and success.

GAO found that: (1) as part of its battlefield digitization plan, the Army plans to conduct a series of costly experiments from 1995 to 1997 to demonstrate the utility of a digitized force; (2) risks that the Army faces in implementing its digitization plan include integration, software development, hardware costs, unknown quantity requirements, communications, and interoperability with other command and control systems; (3) specific and measurable goals are needed to evaluate the achievements of each experiment, and these goals should be met before proceeding to the next experiment; (4) the Army is risking investments of almost $400 million for digital systems needed to conduct increasingly larger scale experiments through fiscal year 1999; (5) the investment required to digitize a 10-division Army could be as high as $4 billion; and (6) since Congress has directed the Army to include the Marine Corps in its digitization plan, the Department of Defense must identify funding for the Marine Corps to ensure its participation and success in the digitization program.

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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