UAVs are pilotless aircraft resembling small airplanes or helicopters that areremotely controlled or preprogrammed to be controlled by on-board equipment. The Department of Defense (DOD) initiated acquisition of the Short-Range. UAV in fiscal year 1989 as a common-service system for use by the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. The system is one of a family of UAVs being acquired by DOD to provide the capability to perform reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition, and intelligence collection. The UAV Joint Project Office (JPO), which manages acquisition of the Short-Range system, awarded contracts in September 1989 to two firms to provide candidate systems for competitive testing in fiscal year 1991. However, technical problems with the candidate systems delayed the program, and the competition continued into fiscal year 1992. In June 1992, one firm was unable to complete the competitive testing because it could not successfully certify military users to safely operate its system. The other firm completed the test program in July 1992 and was selected as the winning contractor.
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