FOIA: Advanced Concept Techology Program Improvement Report

PrototypeAdvancedConceptTechnology.pdf
Report on Advanced Concept Technology
A report from the GOA on how to improve the development of Advanced Concept Technology with response from DOD
Document date: 1998-10-01
Department: United States General Accounting Office
Author: Louis J Rodrigues, Director, Defense Aquisitions Issues;
Document type: Report
pages: 23

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Archivist's Notes: An extremely clear report on suggested improvements to the Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration program. The reports lays out ways in which this could be improved by way of ensuring correct number of prototypes are used and immature technologys are avoided.
It mentions the Predator and Outrider Unmanned Aerial Vehicle project.
The document contains a detailed response from the Department of Defense.

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In a general sense, this report is the contest between the GAO and the DOD over the speed at which new technologies/systems are brought into limited production and use in the field. The GAO favors what it terms "mature' technologies, meaning tried and true, while the DOD wants to accept more exotic ideas for deeper consideration.

This infighting would naturally effect any really exotic systems that might be considered worthwhile by some in the DOD, such as propulsion platforms using advanced technologies such as antimatter or the like.

Because of this infighting a logical conclusion can be drawn that the more exotic types of things are pursued under "black budgets", and would be one reason for the denial of their existence to the general public.

I concur with NGC2736's assessment of this document.
There is no great revelation as to what new technologies are being pursued, rather this is an analysis and discussion of procedures and policies of advanced projects.

Some of the projects held up as examples in the document are the Predator UAV program as already mentioned in the original post, the Outrider UAV, LOSAT, BCIS, SADL, etc.

Nothing earth-shattering here, but gives good insight into how the GAO and DOD interact.