Weapon evaluators must change, or risk irrelevance, warns Christie.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: Up Front

At a time when the military services are rushing to field new equipment to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, many systems see combat before they go through operational testing. This is one among several reasons why weapon test organizations must adapt to the times or, otherwise, risk becoming irrelevant, said Thomas P. Christie, the Pentagon's director of operational test and evaluation.

OT&E agencies should not forget that the troops in the field are their primary customers, and it's important for testers to give users a realistic appraisal of their equipment performance, even if those weapons have not yet gone through full operational testing, Christie said in a recent speech to the National Defense Industrial Association Test and Evaluation symposium, in Reno, Nev.

"When so many of our systems go to war before initial OT&E and before full-rate production, users need up-to-the-minute, continuous test and evaluation to keep them informed of system capabilities and limitations. Even after fielding, the acquisition community needs continuous evaluation to feed spiral development," Christie said.

In the post-9/11 era, testers are facing "formidable" challenges, he noted. The often are perceived as impediments to progress that slow down the acquisition process. "Program offices and developers appear at times to be learning faster how to avoid testing than we are learning to do it better," he said. "Right or wrong, the concept of milestone-driven OT&E appears to be becoming a process of the past.

"Either we change our way of doing business, adapt to the new acquisition paradigms and the realities of the war on terrorism, or we will find ourselves becoming irrelevant with dire consequences for our operational forces."

The Defense Department's aggressive push for "joint" weapon systems also has implications for testing. Christie's office is expected this month to produce a "roadmap" that outlines future steps to ensure that test and evaluation help enhance joint capabilities. "We are working with the service and defense agency test communities to satisfy this direction," Christie said. "There is no effective method for conducting OT&E that cuts across service lines although, in most actual combat environments, the U.S. must conduct combined operations."

Testers, meanwhile, can expect to see tight budgets. Generally, funds earmarked for OT&E do not have separate line items in the budget, and often are vulnerable to diversion to other purposes...