U.S. Department of Defense Inspector General released a report that critiqued U.S. Air Force MQ-9 procurement plans to buy 401 MQ-9 Reaper u...
IG says USAF risks spending approximately $8.8 billion to purchase, operate, and maintain 46 MQ-9 aircraft it may not need.
The report says this occurred because Air Combat Command (ACC) officials did not follow the Joint Capabilities Integration Development System requirement to obtain Joint Requirements Oversight Council approval for an increase in procurement quantity and failed to conduct and maintain consistent, complete, and verifiable analyses for determining the necessary aircraft quantity.
USAF refuted the claims saying the report is based on a year old data.
"The data in the report is a year old,"said Lt Gen Robert Otto, Air Force deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR). "The Air Force is only buying 346 aircraft, 55 fewer than the 401 figure contained in the report and we've only received about half that number. The projected total Reaper fleet of 346 is far less the service had originally estimated prior to sequestration."
USAF has requested funds to procure 83 more of the MQ-9 ISR workhorse in its fiscal year 2015 President's Budget Request.
Only a summary of the report has been released to the public not filing a Freedom of Information Act request.
The Reaper is the first hunter-killer UAV designed for long-endurance, high-altitude surveillance. It is a larger, heavier, and more capable version of the famous MQ-1 Predator UAV.
The MQ-9 provides unique capability to perform strike, coordination and reconnaissance against high-value, fleeting and time-sensitive targets using wide-range of sensors, multi-mode communications suite, precision weapons and improved loiter time.
The MQ-9 Reaper has flown nearly 700,000 hours, most of those in combat operations and is being extensively used in operations over Iraq and Afghanistan to carry out precision strike and ISR.
