THE US GENERAL Accounting Office (GAO) has warned that there may be flaws in US Department of Defense thinking on improvement of close air support (CAS).
The Pentagon is planning to invest more than $11 billion in CAS weapons upgrades over the next six years, but the GAO report raises questions over the basis upon which these proposals have been drawn up.
"Whether these investments represent the most appropriate, cost-effective, mix of weapons systems to meet close- support missions is unclear, because each military service has continued to propose enhancements without adequate consideration of the capabilities of its other weapons, or those of other services," says the GAO study.
The report says that William Perry, the US defence chief, and other senior Pentagon officials, lack the information needed to weigh the merits of service-generated weapons-acquisition and modernisation proposals.
The GAO auditors believe that the proposals consider a service, rather than joint, perspective. Moreover, the recommendations are "-heavily influenced by service-generated analysis", they say, which may be considered to be self-serving.
Source: Flight International