Program Delays

In late August, InsideDefense.com reported that a new analysis by the Pentagon's top weapons tester aims to dismantle a perception that testing is a cause of weapon system cost growth and schedule delays, tracing the root cause of nearly every big-ticket weapons program since 2000 that has encountered programmatic trouble:

The Aug. 25 briefing by the office of the director of operational test and evaluation, titled "Reasons Behind Program Delays," significantly expands on a similar 2011 analysis and could arm supporters of the office in Congress in an expected legislative contest over the future independence of the testing shop.

"A common misperception is that testing causes program delays," the briefing states. "It is not testing per se that causes a delay, rather it is a problem with the [weapon] system that is discovered during testing that causes a delay."

The new analysis is based on a review of 115 programs that had full-rate production decisions since 2000 and that experienced delays of at least six months, including projects the Defense Department eventually terminated. A 2011 analysis assessed the cause of delays in 41 major programs (DefenseAlert, Aug. 30, 2011).

We now have the 2014 briefing slides. Click here to view them.