Urgent Warfighter Needs: Opportunities Exist to Expedite Development and Fielding of Joint Capabilities
Abstract
To be validated as a joint urgent operational need, a requirement must be joint in nature and, importantly, if not addressed immediately will seriously endanger personnel or pose a major threat to ongoing operations. DOD has taken a number of steps to provide urgently needed capabilities to the warfighter more quickly and to alleviate the challenges associated with the traditional acquisition process for acquiring capabilities. The Office of the Secretary of Defense established JRAC in 2004 to help overcome institutional barriers and provide timely, effective support to meet the urgent materiel and logistics requirements that combatant commanders deem operationally critical. In July 2005, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued Instruction 3470.01 to establish policy and procedures to facilitate the assessment, validation, sourcing, resourcing, and fielding of urgent combatant command needs considered as life- or combat mission-threatening, based on unforeseen requirements that must be resolved quickly. Although not addressed in the July 2005 instruction, DOD officials stated that a criterion for validation was the expectation that the capability gap could be addressed within 2 years. Subsequently, the Ike Skelton National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011 provided that the acquisition process for fielding capabilities in response to urgent operational needs is appropriate only for capabilities that can be fielded within a period of 2 to 24 months.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2012
- Accession Number
- ADA567914
Entities
People
- James Ashley
- Jenny Chanley
- John P Ortiz
- Karen Zuckerstein
- Laura Greifner
- Laura Jezewski
- Melissa Hemes
- Michael Sullivan
- Ryan Stott
- Sylvia Schatz
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office