Congress has made its views abundantly clear on the Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS), setting the stage for further debate in the 2016 budget: lawmakers just aren’t convinced that the Navy has a handle on what role the UCLASS will fill, and what the final product that taxpayers are already spending hundreds of millions of dollars on will look like.
In August we wrote about an emerging clash between Congress and the Pentagon over this issue, and it appears that there is a lot of work to be done before Congress is sold on the UCLASS concept.
The Navy requested $403 million in this year’s budget to continue research and development of the UCLASS platform. The appropriations bill that was recently passed reluctantly signs off on this funding, but it noted “concern” that the Navy was proceeding with developing the system “prior to the formal establishment of stable requirements.”
To answer some of those concerns, the Joint Staff provided a memo to both House and Senate Appropriations Committees noting that the service would attempt to streamline the requirements validation process, and the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) will approve a capability development document before the program reaches Milestone B, the report accompanying the bill notes. The bill stipulates that the Navy confirm JROC validation prior to issuing a final request for proposals.
Meanwhile, authorizers seem even less convinced, and only approved half the funding requested for the program. Authorizers also added language to their bill restricting the Navy from using any of the funds it receives until it submits a report to Congress that certifies that a review of requirements for the air vehicle segment of UCLASS is complete. In addition, when the Navy submits its fiscal 2017 budget early next year, authorizers want a report that provides further details on the program, identifies its role in the fleet, and lays out a full acquisition strategy.