Leaders Attack Spectrum Woes

Signal, May 2008 by Lawlor, Maryann

Adm. Brown shares that in addition to formal training, spectrum managers need hands-on experience so they understand what they will face in operational environments. To that end, the Defense Department is working with the organizers of joint exercises to try to focus on spectrum issues. "We have done a lot of work with the JIEDDO [Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization] for the counter IED mission. We actually have a battlefield lab setup where we can test devices and work in more of a realistic environment. That helps. And then we're trying to make sure that we're emphasizing with the combatant commands that as they do exercises, they need to make sure that they have realistic spectrum pieces woven in," the admiral relates.

To address the issue of the multitude of devices entering the battlespace at breakneck speeds without spectrum supportability, the Defense Department is re-emphasizing that spectrum managers must be at the forefront and intimately involved in spectrum-dependent system acquisitions. Grimes explains that their participation is critical to ensure that the products delivered are spectrally supportable from the mission planning process to the review and coordination necessary throughout the Integrated Defense Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Lifecycle Management Framework. "The acquisition community must support and enforce the spectrum supportability requirements at each critical milestone review. Reporting requirements may be levied at the combatant command level to ensure compliance and, where appropriate, identify process weaknesses and gaps to be addressed and corrected," he says.

Adm. Brown adds that the Defense Department instruction 4650.01 puts more pressure on the department and services' chief information officers to ensure that any device that uses spectrum but is not supportable does not get fielded unless a waiver has been issued directly from the Defense Department chief information officer. "That's pretty significant, and that's new," the admiral notes.

"We're also getting a lot stricter about supportability statements-the paperwork-and the other activities that must be completed by program managers to make sure that their systems will be supportable," she adds. This paperwork is primarily the Application for Equipment Frequency Allocation, or DD 1494, that must be completed before equipment is considered field-ready. Many spectrum managers attending the summit indicated that in an increasing number of instances, fielded devices have received a waiver from completing this form.

According to Adm. Brown, the department has become much stricter about making sure that all of the paperwork, including the DD 1494, is filled out early in the acquisition process. One of the problems has been loopholes in the instructions. "We think we've closed the loopholes and made the process a lot more rigorous, so it won't be as easy to grant waivers. To get a waiver today, the request has to go all the way to Mr. Grimes if it is not supportable," she says.