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GAO-12-851R 1 (2012-08-02)

handle is hein.gao/gaobacgke0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 




        Accountaybility  Integrity - Reliability
United States Government Accountability Office
Washington, DC 20548


          August 2, 2012


          The Honorable Roscoe G. Bartlett
          Chairman
          The Honorable Silvestre Reyes
          Ranking Member
          Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces
          Committee on Armed Services
          House of Representatives

          Subject: Cancellation of the Army's Autonomous Navigation System


          The Army intended the Autonomous Navigation System (ANS) to enable ground
          robotic vehicles to partially drive and navigate themselves and to do so in remote
          areas with difficult terrain, by integrating sensors, processors, and software. Initially,
          the Army was developing the system as part of manned and unmanned ground
          vehicles (UGV) that were part of the Army's Future Combat System (FCS) program.
          But after the cancellation of various FCS vehicles beginning in 2009, the Army
          planned to couple ANS with the yet-to-be developed Multi-Mission Unmanned
          Ground Vehicle (MM-UGV), which among many uses was intended to counter
          roadside bombs - or improvised explosive devices (lED) - in Iraq and Afghanistan.
          General Dynamics Robotic Systems (GDRS) was the contractor for ANS. 1


          The Army made considerable effort to develop and validate a requirement for the
          MM-UGV and ANS; however, both were cancelled in 2011. With the cancellation of
          these efforts, you expressed interest in the impact on Army future autonomous
          unmanned ground capabilities. In response, we examined:


             * To what extent did the Army demonstrate ANS capabilities prior to
                 cancellation?
             * What methods did the Army use to compare ANS to commercially available
                 and other alternatives, particularly in the area of field demonstrations?



          1 Boeing was the prime contractor for the FCS program, with subcontractor GDRS responsible for the
          ANS portion of the program.


GAO-12-851 R Autonomous Navigation System

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