Defense Dept. needs more technical expertise, says chief weapons tester.

• Author: O'Bryon, James F.
• Position: Charles McQueary - Interview

Despite decades of acquisition reforms, major military procurement programs continue to experience cost growth and technology readiness problems. These challenges could be solved to a large extent if the Defense Department put more emphasis on the early phases of the development process, says the Pentagon's chief weapon tester.

"The cost of programs is generally driven by decisions that are made in the initial 10 to 15 percent of the work that's done," says Charles McQueary, director of operational test and evaluation at the Defense Department.

Often the wrong decisions are made because the government lacks enough technical expertise to oversee complex programs, McQueary says in a recent interview. "You need top notch engineering capability in the government. Unfortunately, the government has lost quite a bit of its systems engineering capabilities, and when you lose these capabilities, you tend to do too much designing without an adequate knowledge of the tradeoffs."

Before they enter production, major weapon systems undergo "developmental testing" and later they move to "operational testing."

Program officials also tend to identify problems when the systems reach the operational testing phase. At that point, it becomes much more expensive to change the design. "Developmental testing is the place to find problems. Operational testing should be the period of confirmation, not a period of discovery," McQueary says.

Developmental testing is overseen by the office of the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, while operational testing is primarily overseen by McQueary's office. There is a perception in the defense industry that the two communities are not working well together. McQueary says it would make sense for the operational testers to be involved early with the developmental test personnel.

A survey conducted at the annual National Defense Industrial Association test and evaluation...