Test Center Reform
On Aug. 5, Sen. Dianne Feinstein announced a proposal for the Southwest Air Systems Research Development, Testing and Evaluation Complex, consisting of Point Mugu and seven other large test centers. This is not new. As part of the Presidential Blue Ribbon Panel for reforming the Department of Defense, G.H. Sylvester, USAF, proposed the first basic consolidation of all test ranges in June, 1971.
In January, 1989, as chairman of the Department of Defense Select Test Range Assessment Panel, I re-proposed such consolidations, including the prototyping of a “Southwest Range Network,” including Point Mugu and five other major test centers. It also wasn’t implemented.
Three major obstacles resist such changes. The civilian bureaucracies, particularly in Washington, resist such changes as it diminishes their power over subordinate fiefdoms. The military opposes such changes as it reduces the opportunities for flag-rank commands at these test centers and ranges. The most critical impediment is the lack of congressional control, by the lack of appropriate and dedicated funding controls. Department of Defense Test Centers are subsidized mainly with research and development funds, from a general appropriation category. A new funding category is required for test centers, dedicated and controlled apart from any other category such as development, production, logistics and operations. Congress then could control such appropriations. Sen. Feinstein will be opposed for the same reasons.
Beyond that, significant restructuring, re-engineering and re-architecture of all test centers is needed for effective reform. The rest of the Department of Defense laboratories, the 10 major NASA centers and various test organizations from the departments of Energy, Transportation and Commerce should be integrated to form a viable National Test Agency as a macrocosm of U.S. post-Cold War policy. Technology exists today to begin this quest with significant long-term tax savings and better performance. Test and evaluation as a profession remains insensitive to the origin of the benefiting organization or what uniform it serves.
THAD PERRY
Somis
Thad Perry is a former technical director at Point Mugu and former scientific adviser at Wright Patterson Air Force Base.
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