Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Hunter System Is Not Appropriate for Navy Fleet Use.

As part of an ongoing review of the 4.2 billion Joint Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle UAV program, the General Accounting OfficeGAO is assessing the development of a shipboard variant of the Hunter UAV for Navy use. GAO is issuing this interim report to bring attention to a conflict over Navy requirements for the Hunter UAV shipboard variant that GAO believes should be resolved before the Navy portion of the program proceeds. The Hunter UAV shipboard variant is planned for deployment on Navy amphibious assault ships to accomplish reconnaissance, target acquisition, and other military mIssions. Each system is to include eight UAV5 with payloads and modified Hunter support equipment for launching and recovering UAV, controlling UAV in flight, and processing information from the UAV5 during flight missions. The Joint Tactical UAV Projects Office, which manages the program, is currently identifying the UAV system modifications as well as the ship modifications required for the Navys use of Hunter. Current plans are to acquire 9 complete systems for the Navy, begin deployment to the fleet in 1998, and outfit the Navys entire fleet of 12 amphibious assault ships with shipboard control stations that could be used to operate Hunter air vehicles. The Joint Tactical UAV Projects Office is proceeding with the acquisition of the Hunter shipboard variant even though all Navy fleet commanders have stated that they do not want the system on Navy ships. Thus, the Department of Defense DoD is at risk of investing in a system that wIll not be used. KAR p. 2