The Government Accountability Office has released a new report that indicates fragmentation in how the stakeholder organizations within the Defense Department, White House, the intelligence community and civilian agencies manage space acquisitions.
GAO said Wednesday it has conducted studies on fragmentation issues with national security space leadership over the last two decades and proposed steps to revamp defense space acquisition oversight.
In a move to consolidate space leadership functions, the deputy defense secretary designated the Air Force secretary in October 2015 as the principal DoD space adviser who would unify approaches to space issues, oversee the entire military space portfolio and act as an independent adviser on space matters to defense officials.
“Officials and experts remain skeptical that the recently designated PDSA role will have sufficient decision-making authority to effectively consolidate fragmented leadership responsibilities,” GAO said in the report.
“It is still too early to gauge the efficacy of the PDSA, although PDSA plans to develop metrics to assess effectiveness,†GAO added.
