Improving the Pentagon's test and evaluation processes.

• Author: O'bryon, Jim
• Position: NDIA News - National Defense Industrial Association's 27th National Test and Evaluation conference - Conference news

* The National Defense Industrial Association in March hosted the 27th National Test and Evaluation conference in Tampa, Fla. The theme of this year's event, "Test & Evaluation: Serving the War Fighter," was particularly appropriate given budget belt tightening and operational commitments around the world.

Keynote speakers, beginning with Michael Gilmore, director of the Defense Department's office of operational test and evaluation, provided participants with a frank and open assessment of the acquisition environment within the department and laid out both the challenges to, and the imperatives for, test and evaluation.

Among the conclusions was that testers continue to play a critical role as an objective check on the effectiveness, suitability survivability and safety of systems before they are fielded. However, in the current political and economic environment, there are some serious challenges.

Gilmore said: "If is our job to ensure leadership knows what they are getting and more importantly, what they are not getting so that they know what they can depend on with regards to these systems and their ability to help them fight and win."

Some key leaders within the Defense Department believe that testing is too expensive, takes too long and slows down the fielding of urgently needed capabilities. In fact, experience has shown testing actually saves money over the lifecycle of a program. Nonetheless, pressure is rising to control costs and eliminate unnecessary or duplicative structure and processes.

At the same time, the services are understandably eager to speed the delivery of improved capabilities to deployed forces around the world. These challenges are not going away and have powerful implications for test and evaluation. We must continue to push for robust, vigorous and efficient testing at a program's outset, and continuing throughout its development as a means to reduce acquisition risk and overall costs of new systems. The customers are the men and women in combat and they depend on testers to serve as a consumer advocate. However, the community must also find ways to eliminate unnecessary testing and test infrastructure and make the processes more efficient.

Finally, the community must find effective ways to accelerate testing of urgently needed rapid acquisition items and identify and articulate T&E's return on investment to the program executive officer and program manager community and senior leadership within the military,

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