The US Defense Science Board (DSB) is to study the future aerial target needs of the US services amid concerns that their current systems are not representative of emerging threats. Some targets are not performing as required, while the services are also suffering from increased operating costs and a shortfall in stockpiles.
Commissioned last September, the study is expected to be finalised by mid-2005, allowing for implementation of its recommendations at the start of fiscal year 2006. The review was requested by Pentagon acquisition officials, says Dennis Mischel at the Target Systems Office in the US Directorate of Operational Test and Evaluation within the Office of the Secretary of Defense. "They have asked the DSB to look at targets and target control" and at why the services have so many systems, he says, asking: "What is the future threat, how do we represent it, and is it good enough for our future testing?" Further details on the study are expected to be released at this week's US National Defence Industrial Association targets and ranges conference in Charleston, South Carolina.
Speaking at last month's Aviation Alberta Unmanned Systems 2004 conference in Medicine Hat, Canada, Mischel said: "Over the past five years we have seen investment decline and as a result quantities have declined. We have seen not a lot of new development and as such new targets are really not representative of future threats."
While the 11 September attacks on the USA increased awareness of asymmetric threats such as unmanned air vehicles, he says homeland defence and military requirements need to be addressed.
PETER LA FRANCHI / LONDON
Source: Flight International