The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) is concerned the Defense Department is missing an opportunity to save money by pursuing new ground radar programs for individual services instead of one joint program.
DoD currently is pursuing separate ground radar programs: The Army with TPQ-53, the Marine Corps with TPS-80 and the Air Force with TPS-78 and TPS-703, SASC says in its fiscal year 2014 defense authorization report. SASC says in the report that fiscal realities demand that the services look for every opportunity to develop joint programs, reduce costs and meet valid service requirements.
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| Northrop Grumman’s AN/TPS-78 radar. Photo: Northrop Grumman. |
SASC directs the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or designee, to provide the congressional defense committees with a briefing no later than Dec. 1 on the analysis, evaluation and decision-making process of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council with respect to the validation and approval of separate requirements and acquisition programs for the Army’s, Marine Corps’ and Air Force’s respective ground radar programs.
SASC also directs DoD’s comptroller general to submit to the congressional defense committees no later than Dec. 1 an assessment of the ground radar programs, including a review of requirements and capabilities identifying redundancies, if any, and the degree of redundancy among the programs. The comptroller general shall also include an assessment of the feasibility and acceptability of establishing a joint ground radar program and an estimate of program cost increases or decreases should such a joint program be established.
Northrop Grumman [NOC] produces the Air Force’s S-band TPS-78 and TPS-703 solid-state tactical mobile radar systems. The TPS-78 is a long-range radar while TPS-703 is mid-range.
The Marine Corps’ TPS-80 radar is known as the Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (G/ATOR). The SASC report cites a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report from March that found that the G/ATOR program has more than doubled in unit cost, total program costs and research and development (R&D) costs since it began in 2005. SASC also said in its report for the FY ’10 NDAA that, at the time, the Marine Corps was considering G/ATOR for possible joint development with the Army.