{"id":21917,"date":"2020-02-07T22:13:44","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T22:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2020\/02\/07\/air-force-wasted-17m-on-unneeded-never-delivered-weather-sensors-for-reaper-drone-ig-finds\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:01:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:01:27","slug":"air-force-wasted-17m-on-unneeded-never-delivered-weather-sensors-for-reaper-drone-ig-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/unmanned\/2020\/02\/07\/air-force-wasted-17m-on-unneeded-never-delivered-weather-sensors-for-reaper-drone-ig-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Force wasted $17M on unneeded, never-delivered weather sensors for Reaper drone, IG finds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Over an seven-year period, the Air Force paid $17.7 million to a company to improve the MQ-9 Reaper\u2019s<\/a> ability to measure weather data, which it thought could have helped it track how fast ice is building up on its wings in-flight and avoid crashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Except no such weather support capabilities were ever delivered, according to a Defense Department inspector general report released Friday \u2014 or even needed. And the money \u2014 which came from overseas contingency operations funding and not through the usual appropriations process \u2014 was wasted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Air Force thought such weather-tracking capability would have helped the Reaper<\/a> and its predecessor, the now-retired MQ-1 Predator<\/a>, operate in ice and extreme wind, the IG said in its report<\/a>, \u201cEvaluation of Weather Support Capabilities for the MQ-9 Reaper.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Reaper was designed and built, the IG said, it had limited ability to track the weather. The analog sensors measuring outside air temperature and wind speed and a sensor that detected ice buildup once the ice exceeded a certain level were not enough, the IG said. And after a series of costly weather-related crashes involving Predators and Reapers, the Air Force funded a study to find better weather sensors for the drones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Air Force funded that project between fiscal 2010 and 2016, the IG said \u2014 but it went about it in entirely the wrong way. It used OCO funding, which typically goes to pay for wartime operations, when it should have been funded with research, development, test and evaluation funds. And when OCO funding was cut, the Air Force in 2016 pulled funding for the Reaper\u2019s weather project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s worse, the Air Force later decided that the sensor wasn\u2019t needed at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\t