The Pentagon Is Ill-Organized to Improve Its Use of Electromagnetic Spectrum, GAO Says
Old ways and means are quickly becoming obsolete — but spectrum issues remain everyone’s second job.
By Patrick Tucker
Technology Editor
December 11, 2020
The U.S. military has big plans for better harnessing the electromagnetic spectrum, but lacks the organizational setup to do it, says the Government Accountability Office, or GAO. The department hasn’t even figured out who should be in charge of implementing its months-old strategy, let alone how to connect or combine the service’s many related projects and efforts.
“DOD officials from multiple offices with [electromagnetic spectrum] duties identified a lack of central coordinating authority as a major challenge to effective EMS governance,†says the report, issued on Thursday. “An official from the [cross-functional team] said that EMS-related duties are spread across the department and there is a need for a DOD official that can be held responsible for EMS issues.â€
The problem isn’t so much a lack of high-ranking defense officials with eyes on electronic warfare and spectrum issues. It’s that those people have a lot of other important things to do, so while they may all agree that spectrum warfare is critical and that the Defense Department should follow its own strategy, they’re also in charge of things like nuclear deterrence or fixing the Defense Department’s information technology infrastructure. So spectrum issues become everybody’s second job.
https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2020/12/pentagon-ill-organized-improve-its-use-electromagnetic-spectrum-gao-says/170718/
