The General Accounting Office said a new procurement program established by the Department of Defense to ensure that new weapons systems do not interfere with commercial wireless systems appears to be working, but that the program is too new to truly evaluate its effectiveness.
“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 six months and no weapons systems have been deployed using these new procedures,” said Allen Li, GAO director of acquisition and sourcing management. Prior to the recent policy change, DoD acquisition guidance required a much less demanding review of RF, said Li.
The GAO was directed by Congress to review DoD’s new acquisition procedures. The congressional auditing agency conducted its study from December through April, but GAO was stymied by the fact that the first pilot projects being conducted under the revised procedures will not be completed until January.
