Managing Our Money

The Army has begun development of “Warrior”, an unmanned aircraft system. It is part of a plan by the Department of Defense to spend $20 billion dollars over the next five years on such systems. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has reviewed the Warrior program and found some problems.

Basically, the GAO found that the technology being used in the program is not as proven as one would prefer and the schedule is overly optimistic. With regards to the technology, it has not been fully integrated into an unarmed aircraft before. The schedule calls for only thirty-two months between award of the development and demonstration contract to a production decision. Such a tight schedule is hoping that the technology works and that the design will not undergo changes.

I don’t think ‘hope’ is how we want the government to manage projects using our money.