Thursday, May 2, 2024
Thursday, May 2, 2024
Key Issues HADES deployment SAOC contract FORGE framework
The Government Accountability Office released a report this afternoon that finds that "future aerostat and airship investment decisions drive oversight and coordination needs."
GAO identified 15 key aerostat and airship efforts that were underway or had been initiated since 2007, and the Department of Defense (DOD) had or has primary responsibility for all of these efforts. None of the civil agency efforts met GAO's criteria for a key effort. Most of the aerostat and airship efforts have been fielded or completed, and are intended to provide intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) support. The estimated total funding of these efforts was almost $7 billion from fiscal years 2007 through 2012. However, funding estimates beyond fiscal year 2012 decline precipitously for aerostat and airship efforts under development, although there is an expectation that investment in the area will continue.
Three of the four aerostat and airship efforts under development, plus another airship development effort that was terminated in June 2012, have suffered from high acquisition risks because of significant technical challenges, such as overweight components, and difficulties with integration and software development, which, in turn, have driven up costs and delayed schedules.
DOD has provided limited oversight to ensure coordination of its aerostat and airship development and acquisition efforts. Consequently, these efforts have not been effectively integrated into strategic frameworks, such as investment plans and roadmaps. At the time of GAO's review, DOD did not have comprehensive information on all its efforts nor its entire investment in aerostats and airships. Additionally, DOD's coordination efforts have been limited to specific technical activities, as opposed to having a higher-level authority to ensure coordination is effective. DOD has recently taken steps to bolster oversight, including the appointment of a senior official responsible for the oversight and coordination of airship-related programs. However, as of August 2012, DOD has not defined the details relating to the authority, scope, and responsibilities of this new position. Whether these steps are sufficient largely depends on the direction DOD intends to take with aerostat and airship programs. If it decides to continue investing in efforts, more steps may be needed to shape these investments.
Inside the Pentagon reported last Thursday that DOD is poised to demonstrate a rigid-hull, variable-buoyancy hybrid air vehicle next month amid efforts to develop a concept of operations for the technology:
The Defense Department plans to hold the Project Pelican demonstration nearly a year earlier than anticipated, said DOD spokeswoman Lt. Col. Melinda Morgan. The Pelican is designed to vertically land and takeoff at maximum gross weight. Unlike existing airships and other hybrid airships in development, it will be a heavier-than-air vehicle during ground operations, according to the Pentagon's fiscal year 2013 budget request.
Project Pelican, a non-deployable airship technology demonstrator designed by Aeros, aims to integrate and demonstrate a technology suite that could reduce operational constraints on future heavy-lift, buoyant-aircraft development programs, budget justification documents state.
The event in November will demonstrate the control of static heaviness, or COSH, system that allows direct management of the vehicle's buoyancy, Morgan said. When the airship is on the ground, this system will pump helium into helium pressurization envelopes.
"Ambient air will fill portions of the internal structure of the airship and the vehicle will become heavier than air," Morgan said in an email. "This will allow the offload of cargo without having to onload ballast (weight) to keep the airship on the ground."
The COSH system will release the helium from the pressurization envelopes in preparation for flight, allowing the vehicle to become lighter than air and enabling vertical takeoff, Morgan said.