NCJ Number
146828
Date Published
1993
Length
20 pages
Annotation
The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) investigated the Department of Defense's (DOD) efforts to combine Sea-Based Aerostat (SBA) ships and Small Aerostat Surveillance System (SASS) ships in the Caribbean and DOD's use of funds appropriated in 1992 to operate and maintain SBA ships for purposes not authorized by Congress.
Abstract
The SBA and SASS ships are commercial vessels with tethered blimps called aerostats; radars mounted on the aerostats can detect and monitor ships and airplanes suspected of smuggling illicit drugs. The GAO found that, in accordance with the decision taken by Congressional budget conferees, DOD took operational control of five Coast Guard SBA ships in December 1991 and combined SBA and SASS counterdrug missions in the Caribbean in early 1992. While the conferees funded operations for seven ships, DOD operated only four (three SASS and one SBA) ships, placing three other SBA ships in storage and using one SBA ship for an SBA/SASS comparison test of operational capabilities. The report also found that DOD used $4.5 million of its fiscal year 1992 funds to operate the third SASS ship, even though the conferees had declined to fund the third ship. 1 table, 2 figures, 5 notes, and 2 appendixes