The U.S. Government Accountability Office is pressing the Pentagon to overhaul how it approaches testing new weapons, urging the Department of Defense to embed testers in the earliest stages of development—long before prototypes ever reach the battlefield. The recommendation, detailed in a report released Thursday, frames early user engagement as the key to delivering faster, smarter, and more adaptable systems to American warfighters.
GAO Warns Against “Reactive” Testing
According to the watchdog, waiting until late-stage field trials to identify flaws is like trying to rebuild a ship after it has already set sail—inefficient, costly, and ultimately dangerous.
“Traditional, reactive test and evaluation helps warfighters understand limitations,” the GAO wrote, “but it does little to speed the delivery of the capabilities they urgently need.”
The report scrutinizes the Pentagon’s weapons testing pipeline and highlights systemic delays that stem from involving evaluators too late in the process.
