Theater Missile Defense Integration Study; Active Defense Systems Priorities andIssues First Quarter, Fiscal Year 1996

摘要

Reporting in May of 1995, the Commission on Roles and Missions recommended thatthe Office of the Secretary of Defense develop an integrating function to assist the Secretary in assessing diverse and competing recommendations and providing unified direction for the defense program. The report also emphasized the need for early, top-level assessments of integrated requirements. These recommendations significantly affected theater missile defense acquisition planning in 1995. As the year drew to a close, the fiscal considerations surrounding this drive for acquisition efficiency became increasingly apparent The revised Department of Defense Directive 5000.1: Defense Acquisition emphasized the concept of cost as an independent variable and the need to assess affordability at decision points: Fiscal constraint is a reality that all participants in the defense acquisition process must recognize. This movement toward efficiency and decisiveness was evident as the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) of the Joint Chiefs of Staff reviewed active defense systems priorities during the first quarter of Fiscal Year 1996. In the days since that review, the pervasiveness of this mood of fiscal conservatism has continued to gain momentum. Recent remarks presented at the Joint Attack Operations Conference, the Deputy Director for Force Structure, Resources and Assessment (1-8) stressed the need for insight and selectivity in the search for future solutions to operational requirements. He stated the future vitality of the nation's military would demand decisive, timely commitment to the right technologies, systems, or solutions. The recommendations described in this report were developed in that spirit of prudent decisiveness. This study, like the IROC's review, attempted to adjust the tension between two sometimes opposing forces.