By Marina Malenic
Pentagon officials are looking at the possibility of rejoining the Army’s Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) and the Navy’s EP-X into a single program, the department’s top arms buyer said recently.
ACS and EPX are prime examples of “major acquisition programs that should be discussed in great detail” when President-elect Barack Obama’s team is formally installed at the Defense Department, John Young told reporters at a Nov. 20 Defense Writers’ Group breakfast.
“I want to have an intense discussion about doing that jointly, which is the hardest thing to do in the department,” said Young, who heads up the department’s acquisitions, technology and logistics shop.
Young refused to comment on whether he has been asked to stay on in that role for the Obama administration. He did, however, say that he is crafting a list of programs that deserve “closer scrutiny” from a budgetary standpoint that he will hand off to his potential successor.
The Lockheed Martin [LMT] ACS was a reconnaissance aircraft designed to detect troop movements, intercept enemy communications and radar transmissions and communicate with friendly aircraft via synthetic aperture radar, as well as electro-optical and infrared detection instrumentation. ACS would have replaced three existing Army and Navy platforms–the RC-7 ARL, RC-12/RU-21 Guardrail and EP-3E Aries II.
The original program was canceled in 2006. At that time, the Army and Navy set up separate acquisition efforts for the aircraft, with Navy officials seeking a larger platform.
The major down side of conducting separate acquisitions is the higher cost associated with smaller numbers of units purchased for each individual service.
“These are modest numbers of airplanes, [in the] 20s and 30s,”Young explained. “How many times can the department buy pockets of 20, 30, 40 or 50 airplanes worth of capability for $20 [billion] or $30 billion?”
He said when development and procurement costs are factored into the price, the aircraft could cost $500 million-$700 million apiece, given those purchase quantity goals.
“In the end, the department may decide this is exactly what we have to do–that we have to pay the price to have that capability to make sure our warfighters can succeed,” he said. “But I think it merits more debate than rubber-stamping unique service requirements.”
Young said he met with Army and Navy officials earlier this month for “an intense discussion” about rejoining the programs. During his tenure as Navy acquisition chief several years ago, Young was involved in coordinating the joint effort. At that time, “the Navy said, ‘I’ll give ground here’ to be joint with the Army,'” he told reporters.
“Obviously, ACS was a disaster, from my point of view,” he added.