Military

In accordance with Title 10, U.S. Code, Section 139, paragraph (b)(3), the Director, OT&E is the principle senior management official in the DoD responsible to "monitor and review all operational test and evaluation in the Department of Defense." This includes the OT&E on smaller, non-major acquisition systems. Although several non-major systems such as those directly affecting major systems and those specifically directed by Congress are under direct oversight of DOT&E, the OT&E of most non-major systems are controlled by the Service OTAs.

The Service OTAs are responsible for OT&E on hundreds of small programs. Army ATEC is currently working on 122 ACAT III or below and the Navy OPTEVFOR retains 223. Air Force AFOTEC retains 137 ACAT III programs under their cognizance. This is in addition to the numerous ACAT III programs that are managed by the Air Force's Air Combat Command, Air Mobility Command and Air Warfare Center. None of the Service OTAs are adequately funded for this work. With priority often going to the higher profile major acquisitions, the OTAs must balance many competing demands for very scarce resources.

These small programs represent some of the best examples of integrated T&E demonstrating very effective processes to more rapidly field new military equipment. Often these processes are aggressive applications of the Secretary's themes we have urged now for five years--early involvement by the operational testers, combining DT with OT, and combining testing and training. We are using successful examples from smaller programs to encourage the larger major system acquisitions to take advantage of the benefits of these themes.

One example of non-major system OT&E reported this year was the Deployable Power Generation and Distribution System (DPGDS). A description of the T&E conducted by AFOTEC follows.

The DPGDS is the proposed replacement for existing Harvest Falcon/Eagle power generation systems. It is designed to connect to existing elements of the secondary power distribution system to provide electrical power to a 1,100 person bare base camp. The DPGDS is designed to reduce theater airlift sortie requirements for mobile generation by at least 25 percent (key performance parameter). Other system requirements include improvements in overall efficiency, reliability, durability, and maintainability.

The QOT&E and subsequent Deficiency Report Verification Tests (DRVT) were conducted at operationally representative conditions at Holloman AFB, New Mexico. Task qualified Air Force and Army personnel set up and operated the system in a variety of real world configurations and scenarios involving billeting, functional area tents, and base utility systems. Operators were tasked to set up, run, and maintain the system over a 30-day QOT&E and two subsequent DRVTs covering another 30 days of operation each.

DPGDS would have been operationally limited if fielded prior to resolution of the software, hardware, and suitability deficiencies identified during QOT&E. As a result, the system now provides users with greater flexibility, reliability, safety, and life cycle cost reductions.

Provide for a more operationally realistic DT&E with greater operational tester and user participation right from the start. If done, many of the identified deficiencies (software, isolation issues, overheat conditions) may have been solved early, eliminating the need for additional testing after QOT&E. Communications between subject matter experts and system requirement developers is essential. During QOT&E, the users (Army and Air Force) identified new requirements not clearly defined in the original requirements documents causing extensive system changes and a year program slip.

The following tables document some of the other non-major systems OT&E activities conducted by the service OTAs. (These tables are limited to those T&E activities reported in FY01 that were intended to support full-rate production decisions.)

Notes:

1) MCOTEA and OPTEVFOR do not breakout Survivability for separate treatment. Survivability is addressed as a component of Operational Effectiveness.

2) Operational Effectiveness and Suitability findings above were reflective of the system at the time of test. The system presented for the MS-III full-rate production decision often has changes incorporated as a result of the IOT&E experience.