Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities Hearing
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The Role of the
Introduction
Madam Chairwoman and distinguished members of the subcommittee, it is an honor to appear before you today to report on the efforts of the
In the year since I last appeared before you, DoN has continued to actively manage our research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) accounts, workforce, and infrastructure. We still have many significant challenges, including an examination of how best to use FFRDCs and UARCS to address the challenges ahead, but we continue to make strides in understanding the full strategic potential of our national resources to affordably deliver advanced technologies to Naval Forces.
The budget has offered its own set of challenges. Since 2008, the rate at which DoN's Budget is decreasing is at historical levels, , equaling or exceeding the decreases we saw after the Reagan Build-up and Vietnam War. These kinds of reductions call for a new investment strategy. In the Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 budget request, DoN reduced a number of RDT&E programs, including
Strategic Reviews
To ensure the future technological superiority of our Fleet and Force, DoN must make prudent RDT&E investments that provide combat effectiveness, affordability and improved reliability and maintainability of our current and future weapon systems. The inherent mismatch in timescales for our budget processes, operational needs and S&T development are amplified in this time of declining budgets. DoN must ensure RDT&E investments continue to target the correct warfighter missions, are aligned across all RDT&E accounts, and expeditiously transition required technologies to Fleet and Force operators. To answer these new challenges and ensure the right investments are being made, DoN has formed the Naval RDT&E Corporate Board consisting of the Undersecretary of the
In 2013, we completed our second round of reviews of DoN RDT&E investments. Our focus during these reviews is to ensure we are effectively balancing tactical and strategic requirements against our current and future technical capabilities. We want to shift our decisions from reactive and stove-piped to a proactive and holistic approach where decisions are made at the appropriate level and wisely use our resources and intellectual capital. As a result of these reviews, we have made some tactical course corrections that will better align RDT&E projects in a more accurate budget activity and allow for more orderly deployment of advanced technology from the bench to the fleet.
Our continuing efforts in Integration and Interoperability (I&I), looking across the "kill chains" to understand how systems really work together and where best to make our investments to maximize warfighting capabilities, are providing great insight.
In the next few years, DoN will expand I&I efforts to include new technologies into the kill chain analysis to enable mission planning for advanced technologies in development. One example of an advanced technology we are developing is the Large Displacement Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (LDUUV). The LDUUV will provide a reliable, fully autonomous, long-endurance UUV capable of extended operation (over 60 days) in cluttered littoral environments. The program is developing the energy, autonomy and core systems to operate in a complex ocean environment near harbors, shorelines, and other high-traffic locations. Key approaches include using open architecture to lower cost and enable full pier-to-pier autonomy in over-the-horizon operations. Achieving these goals will reduce platform vulnerability, enhance warfighter capability and safety, and close gaps in critical and complex mission areas by extending the reach of the
Another example of advanced technology development is the Electromagnetic Railgun. Fired by electric pulse, the Railgun eliminates gun propellant from magazines, resulting in greater survivability. The Railgun has multi-mission potential for long-range, land-attack Naval Surface Fire Support, ballistic and cruise missile defense, and anti-surface warfare against ships and small boats. The Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) and the
Workforce
I have oversight of systems engineering and overall stewardship responsibilities for the
. Aligning processes for the work we accept from customers;
. Establishing common processes for measuring the technical core capabilities and capacity of our workforce; and
. Establishing DoN-wide definitions for technical core capabilities and competencies as a part of measuring and maintaining the ability to deliver the
Investments in research and development as well as in our workforce and facilities to support the legacy systems and the systems of systems must be made. The
Section 219
DoN is focused on the quality of our technical workforce's capability and capacity and ensuring stability within the organic workforce. Section 219 of the FY 2009 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has proven invaluable to maintaining the health of the
Infrastructure
Our investment in our workforce is critical but so is our investment in our infrastructure. I am pleased to report we have completed our initial Naval Infrastructure Capabilities Assessment (NICAP) effort started in FY 2010 at NAVAIR, to include all RDT&E capabilities at the Warfare/Systems Centers. NICAP has captured and base lined technical information on more than 500 different capabilities spread across 68 different geographical locations of our 15 Laboratory and Warfare/Systems Centers. The depth and the breadth of their capabilities are exceptional in spite of some of the less-than-ideal facilities in which our scientists and engineers must perform their work. Because each of the SYSCOMs uses a different taxonomy to classify and manage their RDT&E capabilities, we have embarked on a strategy to make the data more consistent and comparable across the SYSCOMs. NICAP provides dynamically generated assessment views, statistical and tabular, that enable the comparative assessment of current Naval RDT&E capability baseline and relevant supporting analyses for emerging infrastructure reviews.
The Assistant Secretary of the
. Atlantic Test Range Facility:
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An additional challenge we face is the need for increasing maintenance on our facilities as they age. There needs to be balance between repairing and maintaining our infrastructure and the need to build new capability. Balancing the infrastructure needs of our Laboratories with the needs of the Fleet and our warfighters will always be a challenge. With the current constrained budget environment, the minor construction authority granted under Section 2805 becomes even more important and holds significant potential for the revitalization of
Improving Processes to Improve Effectiveness
DoN is focused as well on achieving meaningful process improvements and striving to get these into the "DNA" of the DoN workforce to continue to push for technological innovation within the framework of affordability and information protection.
DoN is leading efforts for program protection planning in compliance with ASD AT&L/SE with policy and guidance. We are developing policy for the supply-chain risk management initiative required by Section 815 of the FY 2010 NDAA. We are also engaged with DoD in the development of the Concept of Operations and Implementation Plan for Section 941 of the FY 2013 NDAA, requiring cleared defense contractors to report cyber intrusion events occurring on their networks.
We continue to deploy Open Systems Architecture engineering and business approaches to improve our systems, increase competition, and speed technology insertion. Last summer we ran a business innovation war game using crowd sourcing to identify novel ways to expand the implementation of Open Systems Architecture in DoN. As part of the game, hundreds of participants from Government and Academia developed 15 action plans. We are currently in the process of considering these ideas for follow-on actions.
The defense industrial base is a critical component of the
Finally, I have initiated a Systems Engineering streamlining effort to identify cumbersome work practices, costs of doing systems engineering business, and to enhance our workforce capability and readiness. We are focused on delivering engineering excellence and lateral integration with program test and program support activities, reducing duplications, and linking requirement to test and support planning. We are also looking at inter-organizational responsibilities vertically so that organizational authorities and responsibilities at the Secretariat, SYSCOMs, and the Warfare/Systems Centers align appropriately. DoN addresses our Systems Engineering workforce qualifications and assignments through our Technical Authority qualification process at the
Summary
We have faced technological and budgetary challenges in the past year, but our goal remains the same: to ensure our Sailors and Marines are armed with technically superior capabilities. We can make certain this superiority continues through disciplined processes focused on affordability, executed by a skilled workforce with second-to-none technical capabilities, performing innovative state-of-the-art science and engineering in facilities. We have made great strides over this last year, and we look forward to continuing progress. Thank you for your support and the opportunity to appear before you today.
Read this original document at: http://www.armed-services.senate.gov/download/?id=a3786dc1-3c79-4692-87a4-64f9e667abf1&download=1
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