Contractors Compete Harder When Own Dollars at Stake.

• Author: Book, Elizabeth G.
• Position: Military R&D - Brief Article

The current project to develop unmanned bombers offers further proof that military high-tech programs are more successful when private industry's dollars are on the line. Both the U.S. Air Force and the Navy are developing so-called UCAVs (unmanned combat air vehicles). The Boeing Co. is the prime contractor for the Air Force system. The company is competing for a naval UCAV against Northrop Grumman Corp. Both firms received $2 million con tracts last June for a 15-month preliminary design phase. The agencies providing the funds are the Office of Naval Research and the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency.

But anyone who has worked in military programs knows that it will cost much more than $2 million to design a UCAV. The con tractors are investing large sums of their own...