UAVs are pilotless aircraft, controlled remotely or by preprogrammed on-board equipment. The Outrider system consists of four air vehicles, ground control equipment, one remote video terminal, four modular mission payloads, communications devices, a means of launch and recovery, and one mobile maintenance facility for every three Outrider systems (see fig. 1). The Outrider ACTD grew out of the Joint Tactical UAV program. The original concept of the Joint Tactical UAV program was to acquire (1) a 50-kilometer UAV system, the Maneuver, to satisfy reconnaissance and surveillance needs of Army brigade and Marine Corps regimental commanders and (2) a 200-kilometer UAV system, the Hunter, to satisfy the reconnaissance and surveillance needs of Army corps and division commanders and Navy task force commanders. The Joint Tactical UAV program was restructured in fiscal year 1996. The Hunter portion was canceled and the Maneuver portion was reconstituted as the Outrider ACTD to evaluate one UAV system’s ability to perform both the Hunter and Maneuver missions. To streamline the acquisition process, DOD designated Outrider an ACTD in December 1995 and awarded a contract for a 2-year ACTD in May 1996. During this period, DOD will acquire 6 nondevelopmental Outrider systems with 24 air vehicles at a cost of approximately $57 million. DOD can procure more systems during the ACTD using low-rate production options built into the contract and, according to an Outrider program official, has requested $30 million for fiscal year 1998 to do so. According to DOD, the purpose of the Outrider ACTD is to evaluate the utility of the system through a series of operational demonstrations. The Army, the Navy, and the Marine Corps will prepare assessments of the system’s military utility based on the operational demonstrations. At the end of the ACTD, Defense Acquisition Board executives will review the service assessments and determine if the ACTD should become a formal acquisition program. If DOD approves transition to the formal acquisition process, program officials must prepare documentation identical to that required of traditional acquisition programs. Prior to beginning the Outrider ACTD, DOD acquired three other nondevelopmental tactical UAV systems: Pioneer, Hunter, and Predator. Each of these UAV programs provided DOD with important lessons about acquisition strategies, system integration, and logistic supportability. However, DOD is not applying these lessons to the Outrider ACTD. DOD’s acquisition strategy for the Outrider closely resembles the acquisition strategy used for the Hunter program. After a user demonstration, DOD awarded a low-rate production contract for 7 Hunter systems with 56 aircraft before demonstrating through operational testing that the system was potentially operationally effective and suitable.Testing of the low-rate production Hunter systems revealed numerous problems, and eventually DOD terminated the Hunter program. Similarly, according to an Outrider program official, DOD plans to exercise a contract option for low-rate production of three to six additional Outrider systems in April 1998 before conducting realistic operational testing. The program official stated that user demonstrations conducted prior to April 1998 as part of the ACTD will provide a sufficient basis for making a low-rate production decision. These user demonstrations, however, will not provide the same level of assurance for justifying a low-rate production commitment as would operational testing since such testing involves meeting minimally acceptable thresholds for key performance parameters. Outrider as an ACTD system has neither key parameters nor thresholds, and DOD is not required to establish them for the demonstrations. Lessons learned from prior UAV programs illustrate that nondevelopmental UAV systems should be operationally tested in realistic environments before beginning low-rate production. Our past work has shown that production of nondevelopmental UAV systems before operational testing can result in adverse consequences. DOD started producing two nondevelopmental UAVs—the Pioneer and, more recently, the Hunter—before subjecting either to any operational testing. The problems DOD has experienced with these systems clearly illustrate the adverse consequences of beginning production without having adequate assurance of satisfactory system performance. Specifically, in 1990, we reported that lack of Pioneer operational testing led the Navy to costly and time-consuming trial and error while trying to adapt the system for shipboard use. Ultimately, DOD spent about $50 million redesigning and modifying Pioneer systems initially acquired for $56 million. Undeterred by the experience with Pioneer, DOD then started production of the Hunter without subjecting it to operational testing. In 1992, we reported that DOD should not award a production contract for the Hunter based on limited testing in unrealistic environments. Nevertheless, DOD awarded a contract for seven Hunter systems. These systems were unable to meet requirements, and the program was terminated in 1995 after an investment of over $757 million. Integrating nondevelopmental components into a fieldable Outrider system is proving more challenging than DOD anticipated. According to program officials, integrating components necessary to satisfy the naval requirements, such as electromagnetic interference shielding and stronger landing gear, delayed Outrider’s first flight from November 1996 to March 1997. Because the Outrider ACTD has a 2-year time limit, schedule delays result in less time available for the users to assess the system’s military utility. These nondevelopmental UAV integration lessons are not new to DOD. The Hunter and Pioneer were both procured by DOD as nondevelopmental systems. Both systems required the expenditure of unexpected development time and money in retroactive attempts to solve integration problems. For example, we stated in our September 28, 1990, report, that the Pioneer system required substantial development to integrate the system into a shipboard environment. In addition, in 1995, DOD concurred with us that the complexity of the Hunter subsystem integration was significantly underestimated by both the government and the contractor. An independent DOD team that reviewed the Hunter UAV in 1995 reported that using nondevelopmental subsystems misled many into believing that integrating nondevelopmental subsystems would not require substantial development. The team recommended that the services should consider and reevaluate the advantage of attempting to procure nondevelopmental subsystems without allowing for some developmental effort needed to integrate them into the overall system. DOD plans to award a low-rate production contract for up to six Outrider systems without demonstrating a critical component of military utility—whether the system is user-supportable. The ACTD’s operational demonstrations will not realistically address the user-supportability of the Outrider system. According to an Outrider program official, the user will perform only basic maintenance during the operational demonstrations, while the contractor will perform all other maintenance. Furthermore, the Outrider ACTD will not include a logistics demonstration to show that the system is user-supportable without contractor assistance. UAV lessons learned show that procuring nondevelopmental systems without assurance that they are user-supportable results in cost growth and program delays. For example, a logistics demonstration conducted after DOD procured seven low-rate production Hunter systems revealed the system was not user sustainable. DOD analysts reported that the perception in the Hunter program was that logistics would be easy to add to a nondevelopmental system. In reality, adding military logistics to a nondevelopmental system proved a significant challenge. The analysts noted that an expensive, time-consuming developmental effort was needed to acquire the logistics support for Hunter. In addition, while ACTD unit cost may be low, militarizing capabilities and adding logistics support increases program costs. For example, while a Predator ACTD system cost about $15 million, a Predator combat-ready production system, with configuration changes, added subsystems, and full integrated logistics support provisions, costs about twice that amount. The Outrider system may not satisfy user needs unless problems associated with meeting joint requirements are resolved and interoperability with other DOD systems can be achieved. Design changes necessary to increase Outrider’s range to 200 kilometers have delayed the program and have increased the weight of the air vehicle to the point it may not be suitable for shipboard operations. Furthermore, developing an air vehicle engine suitable for naval use has proven problematic. In addition, the Outrider analog datalink is not compliant with DOD’s communications interoperability standards for reconnaissance assets and provides limited payload growth options. The Outrider system is encountering technical problems that must be resolved before the system can meet user needs. First flight of the Outrider system was delayed 4 months because of these problems. According to program officials, these problems arose from modifying the Outrider to satisfy joint requirements. The Outrider system was originally designed to satisfy the 50 kilometer, land-based, Army maneuver UAV requirement. Under the ACTD, Outrider’s joint range requirement is 200 kilometers and includes operation from amphibious ships. Modifications to satisfy joint requirements have necessitated several changes to the air vehicle design. These changes, such as adding electromagnetic interference shielding for shipboard operations and increasing air vehicle size to satisfy the range requirement, have added a large amount of weight to the air vehicle. Since DOD awarded the ACTD contract in May 1996, the weight of the fueled air vehicle has grown from the proposed 385 pounds to an actual of 578 pounds. The added weight increases the distance necessary to launch and recover the air vehicle. According to an Outrider oversight official, this could necessitate the use of arresting cables or barrier nets on the deck of a ship. According to Navy officials, the Navy is reluctant to use cables or nets to recover the Outrider because of the impact on other shipboard flight operations. The Navy has previously expressed concerns about the adverse impact of arresting cables and barrier nets on the normal flight operations of amphibious assault ships.