Two acquisitions--Space Fence and the Joint Space Operations Center Mission System (JMS)--that are critical to space situational awareness will begin within 2 years, but face significant and inherent challenges due to the number of governmentwide organizations and assets involved, according to a Government Accountability Office report (.pdf).

"While the recently issued National Space Policy assigns [space situational awareness] responsibility to the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary does not necessarily have the corresponding authority to execute this responsibility," according to the GAO report released May 27 (emphasis original in the quote). The report is an unclassified version of a classified report issued in February 2011.

Report authors warn the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee that unclear management and oversight authorities could lead to the use of immature technologies and capability delivery in a single, large increment, rather than more incremental deliveries--what GAO described as a preferable method of delivery.

To safeguard against the delivery of a large, poorly developed technology, the Secretary of Defense should direct the under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics to ensure that all critical technologies for Space Fence and JMS are mature and demonstrated in a realistic or operational environment, recommended report authors. This may require JMS to be divided into separate, smaller increments, in order to ensure cost, schedule and performance goals are met, the report says.

A DoD response assured GAO that all critical technologies will be assessed as part of milestone B--or the product development and engineering/manufacturing phase. In a response, authors reiterated that GAO's "best practices work" and DoD should ensure critical technologies are identified and matured by development start.

"As currently planned, the JMS effort will not have assurance that all needed technologies will be mature when needed and that cost estimates--based on the development of all five releases--are reliable as of the start of product development," wrote report authors.

The report also recommends that if Space Fence and JMS do move forward with less mature technologies, available backup technologies should be identified. In a response, DoD said backup technology would be most appropriately addressed after milestone B--during system integration as part of the engineering/manufacturing phase where overall system-level risks are considered, according to the report.

Again, GAO responded saying DoD's timeline would have it assessing technologies too late, rather than prior to system development.

"[Earlier] assessment could provide knowledge needed to determine whether the acquisition program is still worth pursuing or what tradeoffs would need to be made with other investments should additional resources be required," wrote report authors.

The Defense Department has made progress in improving SSA capabilities--particularly with a space-based sensor recently launched by Air Force--but it is too early to tell if this capability will effectively address SSA shortfalls, making the success of Space Fence and JMS all the more critical, says the GAO.

For more:
- see GAO-11-545 (.pdf)

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