Defense Spectrum Management: New Procedures Could Help Reduce Interference Problems (17-MAY-01, GAO-01-604)
The Department of Defense (DOD) has become increasingly aware
that the use of more commercial and military electronic systems
aboard ships, aircraft, and vehicles can cause unintended
electromagnetic interactions among systems, resulting in adverse
operational impacts. Such unintended interactions are called
electromagnetic environmental effects and many interference
incidents have already occurred that have limited mission
effectiveness. The new procurement procedures established by DOD
are reasonable and, if successfully implemented, could help
prevent problems related to radio frequency interference.
However, evaluation of the impact of these new procedures cannot
be accomplished until DOD has had a chance to apply its revised
guidance to systems as they go through each acquisition decision
milestone. DOD would then be able to demonstrate that the new
procedures have (1) resulted in the review of relevant documents
at each decision milestone to identify potential frequency
problems, (2) been or will be successful in helping to prevent
interference problems, and (3) resulted in improvement of the
acquisition process. No DOD system has undergone the new
procedures for all decision milestones at the time of GAO's
review. According to DOD officials, the first of three pilot
programs using the new acquisition guidance should be completed
by January 2002. Consequently, the recent changes in DOD's new
procedures precluded GAO's assessment of their effectiveness at
this time.
-------------------------Indexing Terms-------------------------
REPORTNUM: GAO-01-604
ACCNO: A01014
TITLE: Defense Spectrum Management: New Procedures Could Help
Reduce Interference Problems
DATE: 05/17/2001
SUBJECT: Electronic equipment
Radio frequency allocation
Procurement regulations
Defense procurement
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GAO-01-604
Report to Congressional Committees
United States General Accounting Office
GAO
MAY 2001 DEFENSE SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT
New Procedures Could Help Reduce Interference Problems
GAO- 01- 604
Page 1 GAO- 01- 604 DOD Spectrum Management
May 17, 2001 Congressional Committees The Department of Defense (DOD) has
become increasingly aware that the use of more commercial and military
electronic systems aboard ships, aircraft, and vehicles can cause unintended
electromagnetic interactions among systems, resulting in adverse operational
impacts. Such unintended interactions are called electromagnetic
environmental effects and many interference incidents have already occurred
that have limited mission effectiveness. For example, during recent
operations in the Balkans, a jammer aircraft?s engine shut down when it
began transmitting jamming signals, and in Macedonia, electronic equipment
experienced problems when hooked up to the local power grid.
To help prevent frequency interference problems, DOD has written new
procedures for spectrum management, including electromagnetic environmental
effects, which are intended to improve its current guidance when acquiring
new weapon systems and is in the process of implementing them. The new
procedures are contained in DOD?s 5000 series directives, instructions, and
regulations and provide mandatory policy and procedures for all DOD
acquisition programs. Oversight of implementing the policy and procedures
contained in the 5000 series guidance is the responsibility of the Under
Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology, while the
responsibility for national and international policy and planning for radio
spectrum issues lies with the Directorate of Spectrum Management within the
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications and
Intelligence. The responsibility for the management of DOD?s current and
future spectrum needs, however, has been delegated to the Defense
Information Systems Agency?s Office of Spectrum Analysis and Management and
the Joint Spectrum Center. These organizations, along with the Director,
Operational Test and Evaluation, are responsible for addressing the
electromagnetic environmental effects and spectrum management issues. The
specific role of the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation involving
frequency issues is to identify, through testing and risk assessments, any
potentially adverse interference problems.
United States General Accounting Office Washington, DC 20548
Page 2 GAO- 01- 604 DOD Spectrum Management
House Report 106- 945 1 directed GAO to review DOD?s new acquisition
procedures designed to help avoid radio frequency mutual interference
problems. Of particular interest was the adverse impact of electromagnetic
environmental effects between military and commercial users. Specifically,
we were asked to provide a report outlining the extent to which these new
procedures will result in the development of systems that have identified
and addressed radio frequency issues. This report provides the results of
our review to date.
DOD has taken steps to help ensure that program managers identify and
address potential interference problems early in system development. For
example, the new acquisition guidance establishes procedures that require
all new weapon systems acquisition programs to be reviewed for potential
electromagnetic and spectrum management problems as they go through the
acquisition process. In addition, the Joint Chiefs of Staff have revised
their policies and procedures to require program managers to submit relevant
documents, such as operational requirements, for review to ensure that radio
frequency issues are identified and addressed. We believe that the new
procedures are reasonable and, if successfully implemented, could help
prevent problems related to frequency interference. However, this new
guidance has only been in effect for less than 6 months and no weapons
systems have been developed using these new procedures. Consequently, DOD
has not had the opportunity to demonstrate that its new policies and
procedures have been or will be successful in helping prevent interference
problems. Until DOD can, it is premature for us to evaluate the
effectiveness of the new procedures. We intend to follow- up on DOD?s
efforts once it has had sufficient time to impact the acquisition process.
According to DOD officials, the first of three pilot programs using the new
acquisition procedures should be completed by January 2002.
1 House Report 106- 945 ?Enactment of Provisions of H. R. 5408, The Floyd D.
Spence National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001.? Conference
Report to Accompany H. R. 4205; October 6, 2000; p. 775. Results in Brief
Page 3 GAO- 01- 604 DOD Spectrum Management
DOD?s revised acquisition guidance establishes procedures that require
program managers to identify and address potential interference problems.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff have also changed their procedures to reflect the
new guidance. However, the recency of changes precludes an assessment of
their effectiveness at this time.
DOD?s acquisition system is composed of three principal decision systems-
Requirements Generation; Defense Acquisition; and Planning, Programming, and
Budgeting. The first, the Requirements Generation System, produces the
initial information for decision- makers of projected needs of the user and
drives the entire acquisition process. The user defines mission needs in
broad terms and then develops specific requirements. These needs are
documented in a Mission Needs Statement, which describes the projected
mission of the user in the context of the threat to be countered. A Capstone
Requirements Document may be developed to establish the overall requirements
for a family of systems. Specific system requirements are documented in an
Operational Requirements Document, whose development is guided by the
Capstone Requirements. The second principal decision system, the Defense
Acquisition System, establishes a management process to translate the needs
developed in the Requirements Generation System into weapon system programs
that satisfy user requirements. Basically, this process is one in which
systems are developed, demonstrated, produced or procured, and deployed.
During this process, the Office of Operational Test and Evaluation validates
that the system being developed will function as expected. Finally, the
Planning, Programming, and Budgeting System provides funding support to
develop and operate the weapon system.
Prior to its latest revision, DOD acquisition guidance required a much less
demanding review of radio frequency issues and made no mention of
electromagnetic environmental effects. However, DOD?s revised acquisition
guidance sets forth Department policy for managing the acquisition of weapon
systems and applies to all DOD programs. 2 The new procedures established by
this guidance now require all weapon systems to be reviewed for
electromagnetic and spectrum management issues as
2 This guidance includes DOD Directive 5000. 1 ?The Defense Acquisition
System,? DOD Instruction 5000. 2 ?Operation of the Defense Acquisition
System? and Interim Regulation 5000.2- R ? Mandatory Procedures for Major
Defense Acquisition Programs and Major Automated Information System
Acquisition Programs.? Progress Is Being
Made, but Evaluation of Changes Is Premature
DOD?s Revised Guidance Now Address Radio Frequency Interference Problems
Page 4 GAO- 01- 604 DOD Spectrum Management
the systems go through the acquisition process. For example, a revised
directive, dated October 23, 2000, requires that program managers give full
consideration to all aspects of system support including spectrum management
and the operational electromagnetic environment. Additionally, the guidance
requires that program managers design all programs to be mutually compatible
with other electronic equipment and the operational electromagnetic
environment and receive spectrum certification. 3 Further, frequency issues
must be identified and addressed at each acquisition decision milestone to
help prevent interference problems. 4
The Joint Chiefs of Staff have revised their policies and procedures 5 to
reflect the recent changes in the new DOD acquisition guidance. For example,
program managers are now required by this guidance to submit relevant
documents to the Joint Spectrum Center for review. As a result, the Joint
Spectrum Center has been reviewing Mission Needs Statements, Capstone
Requirements Documents, and Operational Requirements Documents. These are
key documents initiated by the user at the beginning of the acquisition
process for a new weapons system; they drive the entire acquisition process.
It is, therefore, important to identify and address potential interference
problems from the beginning of the acquisition process. In addition, these
documents provide information to acquisition decision- makers to help them
determine whether the system can proceed from the initial concept and
development phase to the system development and demonstration phase.
3 Spectrum certification is the process by which development and procurement
of communications- electronics systems are reviewed and certified for system
compliance with spectrum management policy, allocations, regulations, and
technical standards to ensure that radio frequency spectrum is available.
Additionally, the predicted degree of electromagnetic compatibility between
the proposed system and other spectrumdependent systems, and the possible
need for and evaluation of the results of prototype electromagnetic
compatibility testing will be determined.
4 The sequence of decision points in the acquisition of a new system are
Milestone A- Concept Development, Milestone B- System Development and
Demonstration, Milestone C- Low Rate Initial Production, and, finally, Full
Rate Production Decision Review.
5 The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Instruction 3170. 01A
establishes policies and procedures for the Requirements Generation System,
such as Operational Requirements Documents and Capstone Requirements
Documents; Instruction 6212. 01B establishes policies for Interoperability
and Supportability of National Security Systems and Information Technology
Systems. The Joint Chiefs of Staff
Are Also Focusing on Spectrum Issues
Page 5 GAO- 01- 604 DOD Spectrum Management
Also, the Joint Spectrum Center in coordination with the Director,
Operational Test & Evaluation, has issued a guide for early identification
of interference problems during the acquisition process. The guide suggests
documenting electromagnetic environmental effects and spectrum management
limitations and vulnerabilities before a system is fielded. It is intended
to let the warfighter know that a system will work as intended and,
therefore, make acquisition information more meaningful.
The Joint Spectrum Center has also reinforced its training efforts to help
reduce incidents of interference and to help ensure that operators are aware
of when and where they can and cannot use specific equipment.
We believe that the new procedures established by DOD are reasonable and, if
successfully implemented, could help prevent problems related to radio
frequency interference. However, evaluation of the impact of these new
procedures cannot be accomplished until DOD has had a chance to apply its
revised guidance to systems as they go through each acquisition decision
milestone. DOD would then be able to demonstrate that the new procedures
have (1) resulted in the review of relevant documents at each decision
milestone to identify potential frequency problems, (2) been or will be
successful in helping to prevent interference problems, and/ or (3) resulted
in improvement of the acquisition process. No DOD system had undergone the
new procedures for all decision milestones at the time of our review.
According to DOD officials, the first of three pilot programs using the new
acquisition guidance should be completed by January 2002. Consequently, the
recency of changes in DOD?s new procedures precludes our assessment of their
effectiveness at this time.
We provided DOD with a draft of this report for review and comment. In his
oral comments, the Spectrum Management Acting Director said that the
Department agreed with the report. He provided clarification on the sharing
of responsibilities within the Department for implementing the new policy
and procedures contained in the 5000 series guidance. He also provided a
technical comment. We have incorporated both comments in this report.
We reviewed and discussed with cognizant officials the revised Defense
Department policies and management processes that have been developed to
help prevent radio frequency mutual interference problems between military
and commercial systems. Specifically, we discussed the new Conclusions
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation
Scope and Methodology
Page 6 GAO- 01- 604 DOD Spectrum Management
procedures with officials at the Defense Information Systems Agency?s Office
of Spectrum Analysis and Management; the Joint Spectrum Center; Assistant
Secretary of Defense, Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence?s
Directorate of Spectrum Management; and the Office of Director, Operational
Test and Evaluation. We were unable to evaluate the extent that DOD?s new
procedures will reduce radio frequency interference problems as no new
weapon systems covered by this guidance have gone completely through the
acquisition process.
We conducted our work from December 2000 through April 2001 in accordance
with generally accepted government auditing standards.
We are sending copies of this report to the Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld,
Secretary of Defense; Mr. David R. Oliver, Acting Director, Under Secretary
of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics; Lieutenant General
Harry D. Raduege Jr., Director, Defense Information Systems Agency; and Mr.
Lee H. Frame, Acting Director, Operational Test and Evaluation. We will also
make copies available to others on request. The report will also be
available on our home page at http:// www. gao. gov.
If you or your staff have questions concerning this report, please contact
me at (202) 512- 4841. Major contributors to this report were Tom Hopp,
Charles F. Rey, and Bruce Thomas.
Allen Li Director, Acquisition and Sourcing Management
Page 7 GAO- 01- 604 DOD Spectrum Management
List of Congressional Committees The Honorable James M. Inhofe Chairman The
Honorable Daniel K. Akaka Ranking Member Subcommittee on Readiness
and Management Support Committee on Armed Services United States Senate
The Honorable Duncan L. Hunter Chairman The Honorable Martin T. Meehan
Ranking Minority Member Subcommittee on Military Research
and Development Committee on Armed Services House of Representatives
(120019)
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