GAO: Pentagon lacks clear missile defense assessment
Stars and Stripes
September 18, 2009
By Geoff Ziezulewicz,
RAF MILDENHALL, England — A day before the Obama administration announced its intent to scrap the controversial European missile defense shield, the U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report calling for better Pentagon stewardship overall for missile defense programs worldwide.
In its Sept. 16 report for the U.S. House of Representatives’ Armed Services Committee, the GAO found that the Pentagon had not taken a big-picture look at the technical and manning needs of various costly missile defense efforts around the world that collectively fall under the Ballistic Missile Defense System.
As such, the report notes, the Defense Department is missing a foundation for making sound decisions about what will be required for the various missile defense initiatives.
“Without a full assessment of its overall requirements, DOD lacks the information it needs to make the best possible policy, strategy and budgetary decisions for ballistic missile defense,” the report states.
While combatant commands have analyzed missile defense needs by region, as have certain service branches, no overall analysis has been conducted, according to the GAO.
In some cases, the Pentagon put missile defense elements into use before first ensuring that the military services had created units and trained troops to operate the systems, according to the GAO, even though the DOD typically requires that major weapons systems be fielded with a full array of organized and trained personnel. …
