The Hunter is a pilotless aircraft resembling a small airplane that is controlled from a ground station. (See fig. 1.) It is intended to perform reconnaissance, target acquisition, and other military missions by flying over enemy territory and transmitting video imagery back to ground stations for use by military commanders. The Hunter program (formerly called the Short-Range UAV program) began in 1989 as a joint-service effort in response to congressional concern over the proliferation of UAVs by the different services and the need to acquire UAVs that could meet the requirements of more than one service. DOD started the program by procuring two candidate systems for competitive testing. In early 1993, after the Hunter was selected as the winning system, DOD approved its low-rate initial production of seven systems and awarded a $171-million contract. Each system includes eight UAVs with payloads, a launch and recovery station, ground stations for controlling flight and processing information from the UAVs, and other related equipment. (See fig. 2.) DOD plans to buy 24 systems for the Army, 18 for the Navy, 5 for the Marine Corps, and 3 for training, for a total of 50 systems. DOD Instruction 5000.2 requires that efforts to develop a system’s logistical supportability begin early in the acquisition process to assure that it can be successfully operated and maintained when deployed. These efforts include developing the proper procedures for maintaining the system and for training military personnel to operate and repair the system. Accordingly, the contract for the Hunter UAV system required that the contractor develop logistic support information and deliver it when the low-rate production contract option was awarded in February 1993. Such logistic support information is supposed to identify and document (1) functions that personnel must perform to operate and maintain a system in its operational environment; (2) the types of military personnel, such as air vehicle pilots and maintenance technicians, best suited to perform the operations and maintenance functions; (3) all training, including training curriculums and training materials, required to prepare personnel to operate and maintain the system; (4) all equipment required to maintain the system, such as mechanical tools used to repair trucks, and computer hardware and software used to test and repair faulty electronic equipment; and (5) the system maintenance schedule. As of December 1994, the contractor had not delivered adequate logistic support information. In 1993, the Joint Tactical UAV Project Office conducted a logistics demonstration to evaluate the adequacy of the logistic support information provided by the contractor. For the logistics demonstration, the contractor trained military personnel to conduct system maintenance and developed system manuals describing 3,107 maintenance tasks. The trained military personnel attempted all of the maintenance tasks, but they completed only 56 maintenance tasks on the first attempt. After government analysis, and extensive revisions by the contractor, military personnel were able to complete 1,526 more tasks. Government testers informed us that 1,347 of the 3,107 maintenance tasks were so ill-defined in the contractor-supplied manuals that revisions were not practical. In a letter dated January 1994 to the contractor, the Hunter contracting officer stated that the results of the logistic demonstration reflected a system that was not yet sustainable and did not have a support structure in place. The contracting officer identified logistic support information as the primary area of deficiency. He informed the contractor that the system manuals were grossly inadequate to either operate or maintain the system and that the training curriculum was insufficiently defined. According to the logistics demonstration final report, the system manuals contained insufficient references, incorrect or vague cautions and warnings, and conflicting equipment terminology. The testers concluded that these deficiencies caused the manuals to be difficult to use and error prone and that the system manuals could lead to equipment damage and injury to personnel. The Joint Tactical UAV Project Office revised the contract delivery schedule to allow additional time for the contractor to deliver adequate logistic support information. The revised schedule delayed the delivery of logistic support information from February 1993 until October 1994 for unit maintenance and until June 1995 for depot maintenance. Analysts at the U.S. Army Missile Command, the Hunter program’s lead logistics agency, reviewed all available logistic support information in May 1994. They concluded that, based on the contractor’s past history of not developing logistic support information in accordance with DOD policy and the sheer magnitude of the work remaining, the contractor would not be able to provide complete logistic support information before June 1995. Missile Command logistics analysts said that without adequate logistic support information, DOD would have to rely on the contractor for logistic support. Based on DOD’s experience with other programs, Missile Command officials expect contractor logistic support to be more expensive than the support originally planned to be provided by the services. For example, government cost estimates of service-provided operations and maintenance for a Hunter system was set at $2.9 million a year for peace-time operations. However, the contractor has already proposed billing the government about $1.7 million to provide logistic support for one system for 300 flight hours in a 3-month operational exercise. This equates to about $5,666 per flight hour and $6.8 million a year for one system. As we have seen on other systems such as the Pioneer UAV and the SLQ-32 shipboard electronic warfare system, insufficient logistic support information can also lower system readiness. For example, the Pioneer’s readiness has been degraded because faulty maintenance manuals caused maintenance personnel to order the wrong replacement parts, and logistics assessment reports on the SLQ-32 show that inadequate technical manuals increased operations costs and lowered readiness levels. DOD policy requires that operational test and evaluation be structured to determine (1) the operational effectiveness and suitability of a system under realistic combat conditions and (2) whether the minimum acceptable operational performance requirements have been satisfied. As stated in our December 1993 report, results of the limited user testing conducted during 1992 revealed significant performance deficiencies in the Hunter system. While some actions have been taken or are planned that are designed to correct problems, our review indicates that serious deficiencies remain unresolved. We also found that none of the fixes had been operationally tested to ensure that the system meets minimum acceptable operational requirements. In addition, acceptance testing on the first low-rate production system, which began in May 1994, disclosed new problems. As of October 1994, the delivered system had not been accepted. Furthermore, during acceptance testing in late October 1994, an air vehicle was almost totally destroyed when it went out of control. Consequently, DOD grounded the Hunter system. Limited user testing conducted in 1992 showed that the Hunter system was unreliable in several critical areas. The system required frequent unanticipated repairs, the air vehicle engine performance was unsatisfactory, and the built-in-test equipment was inadequate. These problems have yet to be resolved. To ensure that the Hunter is reliable and does not create an excessive maintenance burden, system requirements specify that it require no more than one unanticipated repair every 4 hours. However, limited user tests showed that the Hunter required unanticipated repairs every 1.2 hours. DOD acknowledges that the system failed to meet this requirement but has taken no further action to demonstrate that the system can perform as required. Instead, DOD has relied on contractor estimates, which state that the requirement for unanticipated repairs is achievable. The importance of system reliability was demonstrated during Operation Desert Storm. According to DOD’s lessons learned, the frequent failure of the Pioneer showed that UAV systems must be reliable to adequately support combat operations. Limited user tests conducted in June 1992 disclosed that the two engines used in each air vehicle, which were designed for a motorcycle, were particularly unreliable and had a short life. The engines experienced recurring problems with valve seizures. Because of the repeated engine failures during testing, the project manager directed the contractor to replace all engines with modified versions. Although the purchase price of the motorcycle is under $8,000, DOD has contracted not-to-exceed prices as high as $53,000 each for the engines. The replacements showed some improvements, however, failures continued. Army test officials concluded that each UAV unit equipped with 2 Hunter systems could be required to replace from 3 to 10 engines a week. Furthermore, the frequent engine replacements could overburden the services’ logistics systems. According to program officials, these engine problems have been corrected and the original systems procured have been retrofitted with the changes. Program officials also plan to incorporate the modifications in the systems being produced. Program officials also said the air vehicle engines demonstrated acceptable performance during subsequent verification testing. However, valve seizures reappeared during more recent testing. In fact, during July 1994, while testing the first low-rate production system delivered, the problems with push rods and valve seizures continued. Test officials have refused to accept delivery of this system until these problems are resolved. In addition, at least two earlier crashes, which resulted in significant damage to the air vehicles, have been partially attributed to other engine-related failures. Hunter’s built-in-test is supposed to identify system faults needing repair. However, following limited user testing, test officials concluded that the built-in-test equipment consistently failed to meet requirements and required redesign to correct the deficiencies. The built-in-test detected only 11 of 154 problems during the tests and isolated the cause of only 2 of the 11 faults detected. The test agency concluded that the inadequate built-in-test design significantly hampered system maintenance and increased the time to correct problems. In 1993, logistics demonstration testing disclosed that while some software modifications had been made, Hunter’s built-in-test equipment still did not meet requirements. Currently, DOD plans no further testing of the Hunter built-in-test equipment until February 1995. Most Army and Marine Corps units planning to use the Hunter need UAVs that operate at ranges greater than that at which the ground station can directly control the Hunter.