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Army plan takes fire from Congress, DoD, GAO

Why is the Army buying equipment that fared poorly in tests? That’s the question the chairman of the House Armed Services air and land subcommittee asked senior Army officials at a March 10 hearing.

“It does not seem like these things are going to be ready anytime soon,” Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said after listening to Pentagon testing office officials, who outlined the problems demonstrated in last year’s testing of the first increment of the Army’s brigade combat team modernization program. “Why is there a budget request for procurement of this stuff in there? ...Why not just delay it for a year?”

The Government Accountability Office agrees.

“In the first major acquisition decision for the Army’s post-[Future Combat Systems] initiatives, DoD and the Army — because they want to support the war fighter quickly — are proceeding with low-rate initial production of Increment 1 systems despite having acknowledged that systems are immature, are unreliable, and cannot perform as required,” GAO officials said in written testimony.

Originally developed under the FCS program, Increment 1 includes the Non-Line-of-Sight Launch System, Tactical and Urban Unattended Ground Sensors, the Class 1 Unmanned Aircraft System, the Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle and the Network Integration Kit.

“It will be a major challenge to correct all of the deficiencies,” said J. Michael Gilmore, director of operational test and evaluation in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

The Army has awarded a low-rate initial production contract to Boeing for the first brigade’s set of equipment. It plans to seek Pentagon approval in December to purchase sets two and three.

GAO is recommending Defense Secretary Robert Gates require the Army to correct the identified maturity and reliability issues with the Increment 1 systems and the network prior to approving additional production lots. The GAO is also recommending Army Secretary John McHugh not field the Increment 1 network or systems until the maturity and reliability issues have been corrected.

According to the GAO testimony, a draft report on these issues awaits comment from the Defense Department.

The Army plans to continue testing through 2010 and 2011, with a second limited user test planned for this fall.

Problems during testing

Service officials acknowledged the systems exhibited problems during testing.

“They were found to be oversize in some cases, overweight in other cases, and in some cases the mean time between failure did not measure up to the standards we want,” said Lt. Gen. Robert Lennox, deputy chief of staff for Army programs, testifying before the subcommittee.

If the capabilities do not measure up in future tests, the Army will not put the equipment in the hands of soldiers, Lennox said.

Smith also asked service officials why some of the new systems being procured are much more expensive than the ones they are replacing, comparing the cost of Class 1 unmanned aerial vehicles against that of the fielded Raven system. Smith said the Class I is going to cost $360,000 apiece for the first nine brigade sets, versus the $17,000 Raven. Smith asked service officials whether the new system was actually 21 times more capable than the Raven.

Lt. Gen. William Phillips, military deputy to the Army acquisition executive, cited the Class I’s hover-and-stare and vertical-takeoff abilities as increased capability over today’s systems. But he did note the system’s noise level, saying the system does have issues.

The hover ability doesn’t do you much good if it’s very loud, said Smith, who said he’s concerned that fixing these systems will not just require little tweaks, but that they are “way off” from meeting capabilities.

“The committee is going to keep a careful eye on this,” said Smith. “Our inclusion of these items is going to depend on our confidence as well as yours about what’s going to be fielded and what’s not going to be fielded.”