DOD defines a UAV as a powered aerial vehicle that does not carry a human operator; can be land-, air-, or ship-launched; uses aerodynamic forces to provide lift; can be autonomously or remotely piloted; can be expendable or recoverable; and can carry a lethal or nonlethal payload. Generally, UAVs consist of the aerial vehicle, a flight control station, information and retrieval or processing stations, and sometimes wheeled land vehicles that carry launch and recovery platforms. UAVs have been used in a variety of forms and for a variety of missions for many years. After the Soviet Union shot down a U-2 spy plane in 1960, certain UAVs were developed to monitor Soviet and Chinese nuclear testing. Israel used UAVs to locate Syrian radars and was able to destroy the Syrian air defense system in Lebanon in 1982. The United States has used UAVs in the Persian Gulf War, Bosnia, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operation Iraqi Freedom for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions and to attack a vehicle carrying suspected terrorists in Yemen in 2002. The United States is also considering using UAVs to assist with border security for homeland security or homeland defense. Battlefield commanders’ need for real time intelligence has been a key reason for the renewed interest in UAVs. According to the Congressional Research Service, UAVs are relatively lightweight and often difficult to detect. Additional advantages include longer operational presence, greater operations and/or procurement cost-effectiveness, and no risk of loss of life of U.S. service members. DOD operates three UAV types—small, tactical, and medium altitude endurance—in its force structure. The Air Force has operated the MQ-1 Predator since 1996 in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions, using a variety of sensors and satellite data links to relay information, and in an offensive combat role using Hellfire missiles. The Air Force also operates a small UAV called Desert Hawk, a 5-pound aerial surveillance system used by security personnel to improve situational awareness for force protection. The Army, Navy, and Marine Corps have at various times operated the RQ-2 Pioneer since 1986. Only operated by the Marine Corps today, the Pioneer provides targeting, intelligence, and surveillance. The Marine Corps also operates a small UAV called Dragon Eye for over-the-hill reconnaissance. This small, 4.5-pound UAV is currently in full-rate production. Originally envisioned to be a joint Army/Navy/Marine Corps program, the RQ-5 Hunter was cancelled in 1996 after low-rate initial production. The Army currently operates the residual Hunters for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. The Army also has selected the RQ-7 Shadow to provide intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance at the brigade level, and full-rate production was approved in 2002. Another system, the Raven, a small, 4-pound UAV is being purchased commercially off the shelf by both the Army for regular unit support and the Air Force for special operations. Numerous other UAVs of various sizes remain in development. These include the RQ-4 Global Hawk, a nearly 27,000-pound, jet-powered UAV with a wing span of over 116 feet used for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance over an area of up to 40,000 square nautical miles per day; the RQ-8 Fire Scout, a vertical takeoff and landing UAV weighing nearly 2,700 pounds; and the Neptune, weighing under 100 pounds with a wingspan of 7 feet and optimized for sea-based operations. In addition, congressional action in recent years has been directed toward promoting an increase in the number and type of missions on which UAVs can be used. For example, section 220 of the Department of Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001 specifies that it shall be a goal of the armed forces that one-third of the aircraft in the operational deep strike aircraft fleet be unmanned by 2010. Moreover, in section 1034 of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2004, Congress mandated a DOD report of the potential for UAVs to be used for a variety of homeland security and counter drug missions. Finally, the fiscal year 2004 Defense Appropriations Conference Report directs that DOD prepare a second report by April 2004 detailing UAV requirements that are common to each of the uniformed services. Most of our prior work has focused on the development, testing, and evaluation of unmanned aerial vehicles. As recently as September 2000, we reported that DOD was deciding to procure certain UAV systems before adequate testing had been completed. We found that buying systems before successfully completing their testing had led repeatedly to defective systems that were later terminated or required costly retrofits or redesigns to achieve satisfactory performance. Conversely, when DOD focused UAV acquisition on mature technologies that proved the military utility of a given vehicle, the department had an informed knowledge base upon which to base a decision. For example, even though the Predator UAV was based on the existing Gnat 750 UAV, the department required Predator’s performance to be validated. As a result, Predator moved quickly to full-rate production and, at the time of our current review, had performed a variety of operational missions successfully. Through our prior work, we have also periodically raised the question of the potential for duplication of efforts among the services and the effectiveness of overarching strategy documents and management approaches to avoid duplication and other problems. For example, in June 2003 we reported that the Air Force and Navy, which previously were independently developing unmanned combat aerial vehicles, had agreed to jointly develop a new system for offensive combat missions that met both of their needs. However, we also pointed out that while one program is more efficient than two, the participation of two services would increase the challenges of sustaining funding and managing requirements. Similarly, as early as 1988, we raised concerns about a variety of management challenges related to UAV development. At that time, various congressional committees had expressed concern about duplication in the services’ UAV programs and stressed the need to acquire UAVs that could meet the requirements of more than one service, as the Air Force and Navy have recently agreed to try. In response to congressional direction, DOD developed a UAV master plan, which we reviewed at that time. We identified a number of weaknesses in the 1988 master plan, including that it (1) did not eliminate duplication, (2) continued to permit the proliferation of single-service programs, (3) did not adequately consider cost savings potential from manned and unmanned aircraft trade-offs, and (4) did not adequately emphasize the importance of common payloads among different UAV platforms. DOD generally concurred with that report and noted that it would take until 1990 to reconcile service requirements for acquiring a common family of UAVs. Since our 1988 report, the overall management of defense UAV programs has gone full circle. In 1989 the DOD Director of Defense Research and Engineering set up the UAV Joint Project Office as a single DOD organization with management responsibility for UAV programs. With the Navy as the Executive Agency, within 4 years the Joint Project Office came under criticism for a lack of progress. Replacing the office in 1993, the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office was created as the primary management oversight and coordination office for all departmentwide manned and unmanned reconnaissance. In 1998, however, this office also came under criticism for its management approach and slow progress in fielding UAVs. In that same year, this office was dissolved and UAV program development and acquisition management were given to the services, while the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence was assigned to provide oversight for the Secretary of Defense. Overall, Congress has provided funding for UAV development and procurement that exceeds the amounts requested by DOD during the past 5 fiscal years, and the services to date have obligated about 99 percent of these funds. From fiscal year 1999 through fiscal year 2003, DOD requested approximately $2.3 billion, and Congress, in its efforts to encourage rapid employment of UAVs by the military services, has appropriated nearly $2.7 billion to develop and acquire UAVs. In total, the services have obligated $2.6 billion of the appropriated funds. (See table 1.) Generally, the additional funding provided by Congress was targeted for specific programs and purposes, enabling the services to acquire systems at a greater rate than originally planned. For example, in fiscal year 2003 the Air Force requested $23 million to acquire 7 Predators, but Congress provided over $131 million—an increase of approximately 470 percent— enough to acquire 29 Predators to meet operational demands in the war against terrorism. The Air Force has obligated 71 percent of the Predator 2003 funding during its first program year. About $1.8 billion (67 percent) of the money appropriated during the fiscal year 1999-2003 period went for research, development, test and evaluation of the various models, as shown in table 2. The programs were generally divided into efforts to develop tactical UAVs and medium-to-high-altitude endurance UAVs and, until 2002 when the Predator was armed, were focused on meeting surveillance and reconnaissance needs. Only three systems—the Army’s Shadow and the Air Force’s Predator and Global Hawk—have matured to the point where they required procurement funding during fiscal years 1999 through 2003. By fiscal year 2003, appropriations totaled nearly $880 million, as shown in table 3. DOD estimates that an additional $938 million in procurement funding will be needed through fiscal year 2005. DOD’s planning for developing and fielding UAVs does not provide reasonable assurance that UAVs will be integrated into the force structure efficiently, although the department has taken certain positive steps to improve its management of the UAV program.