Spectrum Management in Defense Acquisitions
Gao ID: GAO-03-617R April 30, 2003
The electromagnetic radio frequency spectrum is critical to the development and operation of a variety of military systems such as radios, radars, and satellites. Due to the changing nature of warfighting, more and more military systems depend on the spectrum to guide precision weapons and obtain information superiority. In recent years, demand for the spectrum increased with advances in commercial technology. This demand has led to competition between government and nongovernment users, making spectrum management vital to prevent harmful interference and to promote spectrum efficiency. With these goals in mind, the Department of Defense (DOD) has long-standing policies and procedures that require system developers and acquirers to consider and deal with spectrum supportability knowledge early in the development and acquisition of systems. Early assessment of spectrum needs provides DOD the opportunity to identify, and therefore, better manage program and operational risks. DOD policy requires developers of spectrum dependent systems to obtain certification before assumption of contractual obligations for the full-scale development, production or procurement of those systems. Senate Report 107-151 and House Report 106-945 required us to assess DOD's spectrum management process. We focused our assessment on (1) the results of the DOD spectrum certification processes and (2) the reasons for those results.
We found that DOD's weapons programs have often failed to obtain, consider, or act upon adequate spectrum supportability knowledge during the early stages of acquisition. A majority of programs try to gain this knowledge at later stages, after key systems development decisions may have been made. As a result, some programs experience significant delays, reduced operational capabilities, or the need for expensive redesign. More importantly, these programs missed opportunities to improve program results and avoid problems that are more costly to resolve late in development or fielding. Also, in a review of selected programs still under development, we found that consideration of spectrum supportability continues to be a problem. DOD is still entering into contracts, starting full-scale development, and sometimes fielding systems before obtaining certification of spectum supportability. The reasons for this late attention include program managers' lack of awareness of spectrum certification requirements, dated and unclear spectrum management guidance that is not aligned with current acquisition models, the competing demands of program managers, and a lack of effective enforcement mechanisms of existing spectrum certification requirements. Additional challenges to DOD implementing the spectrum certification process include the lengthy spectrum certification process, increased reliance on commercial communications services and cutting-edge technologies that challenge the traditional allocation of spectrum frequencies.
Recommendations
Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.
Director:
Katherine V. Schinasi
Team:
Government Accountability Office: Acquisition and Sourcing Management
Phone:
(202) 512-4841
GAO-03-617R, Spectrum Management in Defense Acquisitions
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April 30, 2003:
The Honorable John Warner:
Chairman:
The Honorable Carl Levin:
Ranking Minority Member:
Committee on Armed Services:
United States Senate:
The Honorable Duncan L. Hunter:
Chairman:
The Honorable Ike Skelton:
Ranking Minority Member:
Committee on Armed Services:
House of Representatives:
Subject: Spectrum Management in Defense Acquisitions:
The electromagnetic radio frequency spectrum is critical to the
development and operation of a variety of military systems such as
radios, radars, and satellites. Due to the changing nature of
warfighting, more and more military systems depend on the spectrum to
guide precision weapons and obtain information superiority. In recent
years, demand for the spectrum increased with advances in commercial
technology. This demand has led to competition between government and
nongovernment users, making spectrum management vital to prevent
harmful interference and to promote spectrum efficiency.
With these goals in mind, DOD has long-standing policies and procedures
that require system developers and acquirers to consider and deal with
spectrum supportability knowledge early in the development and
acquisition of systems. Early assessment of spectrum needs provides DOD
the opportunity to identify, and therefore, better manage program and
operational risks. DOD policy requires developers of spectrum dependent
systems to obtain certification before assumption of contractual
obligations for the full-scale development, production or procurement
of those systems.
Senate Report 107-151 and House Report 106-945 required us to assess
the Department of Defense's (DOD) spectrum management process.[Footnote
1] We focused our assessment on (1) the results of the DOD spectrum
certification processes and (2) the reasons for those results. To
determine the results of DOD's spectrum certification processes and the
reasons for those results, we reviewed relevant program documents and
interviewed key officials. We also sent out a data collection
instrument to selected research and development, and user commands to
further identify and gather information on spectrum-dependent systems
currently being developed or acquired. We conducted our work from April
2002 through March 2003 in accordance with generally accepted
government auditing standards and relied upon agency-provided data.
This report transmits the information provided in earlier briefings.
(See enc. I):
We found that DOD's weapons programs have often failed to obtain,
consider, or act upon adequate spectrum supportability knowledge during
the early stages of acquisition. A majority of programs try to gain
this knowledge at later stages, after key system development decisions
may have been made. As a result, some programs experience significant
delays, reduced operational capabilities, or the need for expensive
redesign. More importantly, these programs missed opportunities to
improve program results and avoid problems that are more costly to
resolve late in development or fielding.
Also, in a review of selected programs still under development, we
found that consideration of spectrum supportability continues to be a
problem. DOD is still entering into contracts, starting full-scale
development, and sometimes fielding systems before obtaining
certification of spectrum supportability.
The reasons for this late attention include program managers' lack of
awareness of spectrum certification requirements, dated and unclear
spectrum management guidance that is not aligned with current
acquisition models, the competing demands of program managers, and a
lack of effective enforcement mechanisms for existing spectrum
certification requirements. Additional challenges to DOD implementing
the spectrum certification process include the lengthy spectrum
certification process, increased reliance on commercial communications
services and cutting-edge technologies that challenge the traditional
allocation of spectrum frequencies.
Recommendations for Executive Action:
To avoid delays, reduced operational capabilities, and costly redesign
of weapon systems, we are making recommendations to ensure that
spectrum supportability considerations are appropriately addressed in
the development and acquisition of weapon systems. We recommend that
the Secretary of Defense:
Direct the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and
Logistics; the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control,
Communications and Intelligence; and appropriate service officials to
update the spectrum supportability guidance contained in their
respective spectrum management and acquisition policy directives and
instructions to:
Ensure program managers develop spectrum supportability knowledge,
apply for spectrum certification, and consider spectrum operational
risks at the earliest points possible,
Provide uniformity of spectrum management policies across the services,
and:
Provide a spectrum certification process with the flexibility to align
with current acquisition models.
Measure spectrum management compliance and process performance to
determine how well spectrum supportability considerations are addressed
in the acquisition process.
Establish and ensure appropriate funding for a program of record to
develop a spectrum management automation architecture and to implement
current and future spectrum management automation development efforts.
We also recommend that the Secretary of Defense identify an official or
officials within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for
Acquisition, Technology and Logistics to:
Be accountable for oversight and enforcement of spectrum management in
the acquisition process,
Establish a mechanism to identify to the spectrum management community
new systems that may ultimately require spectrum certification,
Establish a mechanism that provides the spectrum management community
program schedule data for systems that may require spectrum
certification both to facilitate their prioritization of work effort
and enable measurement of process enforcement and responsiveness, and:
Establish a mechanism to ensure--in line with DOD Directive 4650.1--
that programs requiring spectrum certification do not proceed beyond
Milestone B of the acquisition process without approved spectrum
certification. In order to allow acquisition flexibility when required,
waivers may be allowed by the official or officials identified within
the Office of the Under Secretary based on appropriate cause, risk
mitigation strategy, and compliance deadline.
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:
In providing oral comments on a draft of our report, DOD agreed with
our findings and concurred or partially concurred with our
recommendations. Specifically, in our first set of recommendations, DOD
concurred with our recommendation to update the spectrum supportability
guidance in its spectrum management and acquisition policy directives
and instructions, but stated that it would like GAO to clarify whether
our recommendation applies to the previous DOD 5000-series acquisition
publications or the current versions. We believe that the current and
future versions of those publications need to address the issues
identified in our recommendation. DOD also concurred with our
recommendation regarding the need to measure spectrum management
compliance and process performance, but indicated that the resources to
be expended implementing this recommendation could be better directed
towards improving oversight and enforcement mechanisms in the
acquisition process. While we believe that improved oversight and
enforcement are important, it will be difficult for DOD to determine
effective actions for improving oversight and enforcement without
performance measures.
DOD partially concurred with our recommendation to establish and ensure
appropriate funding for a program of record to develop a spectrum
automation architecture and to implement future spectrum automation
development efforts. DOD correctly understood the intent of the
recommendation, but suggested that we clarify it by adding the word
management to describe the covered activities. We agreed and have made
that change. DOD also stated that implementation of this recommendation
for other than current, on-going efforts, will be subject to the
availability of funds. We believe that adequate funding needs to be
ensured so that efforts to develop spectrum automation tools proceed in
a coordinated, logical manner and provide managers with effective tools
to address spectrum supportability considerations.
DOD also partially concurred with our second set of recommendations.
DOD commented that it has a process in place for oversight and
enforcement of spectrum management in the acquisition process that
includes mechanisms to minimize programs proceeding beyond Milestone B
without spectrum certification. DOD also indicated that the absence of
certification should not preclude moving past that milestone. While we
agree with DOD that a process does exist, our review confirms that the
process is not being effectively followed and weapon programs do not
address spectrum supportability issues until the later stages of
development when addressing those issues can be much more costly.
Without stronger enforcement and accountability, it is unlikely defense
program managers will change their behaviors, which are motivated by
the need to move through program milestones in order to achieve the
next funding increment. Stronger enforcement and oversight would ensure
the program obtains spectrum knowledge early in product development and
increase the likelihood of success.
DOD also provided technical comments to a draft of this report that we
incorporated where appropriate.
- - - --:
Unless you publicly announce the contents of this report earlier, we
plan no further distribution of this letter until 30 days after the
date of this letter. At that time, we will send copies of this letter
to the Secretary of Defense; Secretary of the Air Force; Secretary of
the Army; Secretary of the Navy; Commandant of the Marine Corps;
Director, Office of Management and Budget; and interested congressional
committees. We will also make copies available to other interested
parties upon request. In addition, the report will be available at no
charge on the GAO's Web site at http://www.gao.gov.
Please contact me at (202) 512-4841 or John Oppenheim at (202) 512-3111
if you or your staff have any questions concerning this report. Other
major contributors to this report were Julie Leetch, Gary Middleton,
Jay Tallon, and Bruce Thomas.
Katherine V. Schinasi:
Director:
Acquisition and Sourcing Management:
Signed by Katherine V. Schinasi:
Enclosure:
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FOOTNOTES
[1] Senate Report 107-151, "National Defense Authorization Act for
Fiscal Year 2003" [To accompany S. 2514]; and House Report 106-945
"Enactment of Provisions of H.R. 5408, The Floyd D. Spence National
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001," Conference Report to
Accompany H.R. 4205;
October 6, 2000.
