Don't Cut Back on Testing, Defense Official Pleads.

• Position: Philip E. Coyle III - Brief Article

Military acquisition program managers are under pressure to limit testing of new equipment, according to Philip E. Coyle III, the Defense Department's director of operational test and evaluation.

"Program managers--across the board, in every service--are really stretched thin in what they are trying to achieve," Coyle explained to a breakfast meeting of defense writers. The pressure is on to limit testing during early development in order to get the equipment into use as quickly as possible, "but that can come back to bite you," he warned.

Coyle cited the USS Cole--the destroyer attacked by terrorists in Yemen--as example...