Defense Department efficiency efforts may not reach the intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance enterprise, a sector with spending well into the billions of dollars, because the under secretary of defense for intelligence lacks full visibility into ISR investment, says the Government Accountability Office.

"The broad scope and complex funding arrangements of DoD's ISR enterprise make it difficult to manage and oversee," say authors of a GAO report (.pdf) released publically June 3.

The DoD's ISR enterprise spans programs in multiple organizations--among them, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office--that plan for, acquire and operate various ISR systems individually.

Concrete numbers on ISR spending are difficult to determine. In fiscal 2010, intelligence community spending, including for ISR, exceeded $80 billion, according to GAO.

"Spending on most ISR programs is divided between the defense intelligence budget, known as the Military Intelligence Program--totaling $27 billion in fiscal year 2010--and the national intelligence budget, known as the National Intelligence Program--totaling $53.1 billion in fiscal year 2010," according to GAO.

Ambiguity on ISR spending makes the execution of DoD efficiency initiatives that aim to reduce duplication, overhead and excess difficult. The two ISR efficiency initiatives that are underway lack implementation goals and timelines, says the GAO report.

The auditors recommended the USD(I) collect and aggregate ISR financial data in order to better inform spending decisions, set goals and timelines for the implementation of a defense intelligence enterprise architecture, and ensure the ISR enterprise is not overlooked in efficiency efforts.

Defense officials responding to the report agreed or partially concurred with all GAO recommendations except for the suggestion that Congress should legislate an accountability measure, such as conditioning funding, to encourage DoD to make an integrated ISR roadmap.

"Withholding funds often has the effect of complicating further the process for evaluating, procuring and operating the best combination of ISR assets for our warfighters engaged in combat," said Kevin Meiners, deputy undersecretary of Defense for portfolio, programs and resources, in a written response to the report.

For more:
- download the report, GAO-11-465 (.pdf)

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