Due to cost overruns and schedule delays on several major space acquisition programs, the U.S. Congress “is losing confidence in the Pentagon’s current acquisition system,” U.S. Rep. Terry Everett (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, said.
U.S. Department of Defense space programs such as the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System, the Advanced Extremely High Frequency communications satellite and the Space Based Infrared System High system are needed by the military but are billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule.
“If the United States is to keep its technological and tactical advantage, we have to change the way we do business,” Everett said Nov. 10 at Washington Space Business Roundtable in Washington, D.C. “We are going to see budgets tighten in the next few years.”
Both government and industry have had a hand in creating the key problems hindering the Pentagon’s acquisition efforts, Everett said. The Pentagon must reverse personnel decisions that have resulted in poor cost estimating and budgeting, as well as a lack of qualified acquisition professionals, he said. More effort must be put into attracting and retaining qualified personnel for these jobs.
Industry must improve the quality of its systems engineering as well as oversight of the relationship between program prime contractors and subcontractors, Everett said. The military and industry also must stop “expecting technical miracles” in order for its space programs to work by not making advanced research and development part of the acquisition process. “We must take hard science and technology out of the acquisition world and put it in the science and technology world,” he said. “We need to build a real technology base that will help bring about transformation.”
Everett called for the government and industry to work together to solve these problems. “With the help of industry we can and must do better to meet the challenge we will face with these budget restraints,” he said.
