GAO On UAS Open Systems

Adopting an open systems approach could provide "significant" cost and schedule savings for the Defense Department's unmanned systems programs, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report.

"Based on projections from several Navy UAS programs, for example, the Navy could avoid considerable repair and upgrade costs on individual programs, as well as improve performance, by incorporating an open systems approach on programs prior to the start of development," the July 31 GAO report states. "This is because multiple suppliers can compete to quickly replace key components on the UAS with more capable components."

The Pentagon has traditionally "acquired proprietary weapon systems that limit these opportunities and make these systems more costly to develop, procure, upgrade, and support," according to GAO. While the department "has cited a preference for acquiring open systems in its policy since 1994 and each of the services have since issued open systems policies," the congressional watchdog agency found that "the Army and Air Force have been slow to make their UAS open systems, particularly from the start of development. The Navy, on the other hand, has generally designed its UAS to be open from the start of development where it can reap the most benefits."

"Strong leadership" is needed "to overcome preferences for acquiring proprietary systems," according to GAO. "While DOD's Better Buying Power initiative requires programs to outline an approach for using open systems architectures at milestone B, [the Office of the Secretary of Defense] does not have adequate insight of the extent to which an open systems approach is being used by individual weapon acquisition programs.

"Further, OSD does not know if program offices have the systems engineering expertise required for effective implementation of an open systems approach or if additional expertise is needed. Without adequate knowledge of policy implementation and program office expertise, DOD cannot have reasonable assurance that an open systems approach is being implemented effectively by the services," the report continues. "Until DOD takes action to overcome these challenges, the department will likely continue to invest in costly proprietary systems. These steps should increase DOD's ability to promote more competition, save taxpayer dollars, and more quickly field new capabilities to the warfighter, particularly if an open systems approach is incorporated into program strategies prior to the start of development at milestone B."

Consequently, GAO gives four recommendations "to improve the department's implementation of an open systems approach for UAS and other weapon acquisition programs, as well as its visibility of open systems implementation and program office expertise." Among the recommendations:

* "We recommend that the Secretary of Defense direct the Secretaries of the Air Force and Army to implement their open systems policies by including an open systems approach in their acquisition strategies.

* "We recommend that the Secretary of Defense direct the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics to define appropriate metrics to track programs’ implementation of an open systems approach."

GAO also calls on the defense secretary to "direct the Secretaries of the Air Force, Army, and Navy to take the following actions:

* "Require their acquisition programs to include open systems metrics developed by the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics in their systems engineering plans, track progress in meeting these metrics, and report their progress to the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics at key acquisition milestones; and

* "Assess their respective service-level and program office capabilities relating to an open systems approach and work with the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems Engineering to develop short-term and long-term strategies to address any capability gaps identified. Strategies could include the Navy’s cross-cutting approach where a team of a few technical experts within the Naval Air Systems Command could be available to work with program offices, as necessary, to help develop open systems plans."