House panel seeks to establish new service-level sustainment oversight

By Courtney Albon / June 25, 2020 at 12:30 PM

House authorizers want to establish deputy assistant sustainment secretaries for the Air Force, Army and Navy who would be tasked with improving sustainment oversight, cost management and "strategic readiness" for each of the services.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA) recommends in his mark of the fiscal year 2021 defense policy bill, obtained today by Inside Defense, that each service secretary appoint a deputy assistant secretary for sustainment.

Responsibilities would include: reviewing and overseeing baseline sustainment cost estimates; participating in life-cycle sustainment plan reviews; ensuring that programs use cost modeling, performance metrics and data analytics to update plans, build budgets and update assumptions; recommending cost-effective sustainment strategies; balancing the range of sustainment activities for all major weapon systems; and advising their respective service secretaries on how to best align sustainment, supply chain and strategic readiness.

The provision does not dictate a timeline for appointing the sustainment secretaries.

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