Defense Opportunities exist to avoid unnecessary redundancies and maximize the efficient use of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities
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Why Area Is Important
To plan and execute military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, military commanders depend on intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) systems to collect, process, and disseminate timely and accurate information on adversaries' capabilities and vulnerabilities. The Department of Defense's (DOD) ISR enterprise consists of multiple intelligence organizations that individually plan for, acquire, and operate manned and unmanned airborne, space-borne, maritime, and ground-based ISR systems. The success of ISR systems at providing key information has led to increased demand, and DOD continues to invest in ISR programs. For example, DOD requested about $6.1 billion in fiscal year 2010 for unmanned aircraft programs alone. DOD is further examining its airborne ISR budget needs for fiscal year 2012 and beyond. Further, GAO has reported since 2005 that ISR activities are not integrated and efficient; effectiveness may be compromised by lack of visibility into operational use of ISR assets; and agencies could better collaborate in the acquisition of new capabilities. What GAO Found
ISR activities cut across services and defense agencies, and no single entity at the departmental level has responsibility, authority, and control over investments to prioritize resources to meet joint priority requirements. The ISR enterprise exhibits extensive, structural fragmentation with a high number of separate organizations sharing the same roles. For example, multiple ISR organizations conduct strategic planning, budgeting, and data analysis across intelligence disciplines. Although DOD has designated the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence to manage ISR investments as a departmentwide portfolio, the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics has been designated to lead the task force responsible for oversight of issues related to the management and acquisition of unmanned aircraft systems that collect ISR data. In addition, as the ISR portfolio manager, the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence has only advisory authority and cannot direct the services or agencies to make changes in their investment plans.
Further, two key factors make tracking DOD's ISR spending difficult. First, funding for DOD's ISR capabilities can come from several sources, including the Military Intelligence Program, the National Intelligence Program, and service budgets. Second, each service maintains or develops its own requirements process, budget, and strategic plans. For example, each service identifies its requirements and prioritizes spending for its equipment and personnel needs, and tracks and accounts for ISR funding differently.
The Secretary of Defense has identified ISR as an area of scrutiny for potential cost savings in the military intelligence program budget, which totals $27 billion in spending for fiscal year 2010 including ISR capabilities and personnel. In addition, the National Intelligence Program budget of $53.1 billion includes some resources for DOD ISR activities. Since 1988, GAO has reported on the potential for duplication and fragmentation in DOD's unmanned ISR systems. Service-driven requirements and funding processes continue to hinder integration and efficiency and contribute to unnecessary duplication in addressing warfighter needs. Although several unmanned aircraft systems have achieved some commonality among the airframes they use, most are pursuing service-unique subsystems and components. The lack of collaboration and commonality among the services has led to duplicative costs for designing and manufacturing ISR systems, and has resulted in