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The U.S. Navy Should Improve Its Approach to Uncrewed Systems Investments

Mr. David Mortimore | April 10, 2022

The U.S. Government Accountability Office recently published a study on the U.S. Navy's investment approach in uncrewed systems.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently published Uncrewed Maritime Systems: Navy Should Improve Its Approach to Maximize Early Investments. According to the GAO, “While the Navy’s shipbuilding plan outlines spending more than $4 billion on uncrewed systems over the next 5 years, its plan does not account for the full costs to develop and operate these systems” (Oakley, 2022, p. 2).

The GAO provided seven recommendations in its study (pp. 34-35). According to the report, the U.S. Navy should:

“provide Congress with a cost estimate that includes the full scope of known costs to develop and operate uncrewed maritime systems—including estimated costs for operations and sustainment as well as the digital infrastructure—and develop an approach to refine this estimate over time as part of its next shipbuilding plan”
“establish an uncrewed maritime systems portfolio and assign an entity with the responsibility for overseeing this portfolio in line with portfolio management best practices and define the role of key stakeholders”
“provide details[, including measures and metrics,] about how it intends to achieve its uncrewed maritime system strategic objectives”
“develop evaluation criteria for assessing each uncrewed prototype effort’s readiness to transition to an acquisition program”
“develop a master planning schedule to include each uncrewed maritime system effort”
“revise the prototyping plans for each uncrewed maritime system to incorporate how it plans to use its prototyping efforts to mature technologies to achieve top level requirements”
“revise its prototyping plans for each uncrewed maritime system to incorporate how it plans to use information gained from prototyping to develop certifications that apply to uncrewed maritime systems prior to investment decisions”

Get your copy of Uncrewed Maritime Systems: Navy Should Improve Its Approach to Maximize Early Investments.

Oakley, S. S. (2022). GAO-22-104567 Uncrewed Maritime Systems: Navy Should Improve Its Approach to Maximize Early Investments. U.S. Government Accountability Office. https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-22-104567.pdf