Management Of The Department Of Defense Oversight Of The Armys Test Measurement And Diagnostic Equipment Program

Each of the Military Services, as well as the Office of the Secretary of Defense(OSD), uses its own nomenclature for test equipment. For purposes of this report, we use the term test equipment as a specific category of support equipment; i.e., electric/electronic test, measurement, and diagnostic equipment(TMDE), defined to include manual electronic test equipment (ETE), automatic test equipment (ATE), test program sets, and calibration equipment. This volume reviews and assesses current Department of Defense (DoD) policy on test equipment management and support. Although no directives of instructions specifically address test equipment, many are concerned with the management and support of materiel, including test equipment. These latter directives and instructions are reviewed here for the management functions of standardization, acquisition, life cycle support, inventory management, cataloging, and readiness monitoring. Those reviews are presented in Chapter 2 of this volume, while Chapter 3 assesses the overall adequacy of current DoD policy. (Author).

The Department of Defense (DOD) considers the transformation1 of the U.S. military a strategic imperative to meet the security challenges of the new century. In October 1998, DOD established a joint concept development and experimentation program to provide the engine of change for this transformation. The U.S. Joint Forces Command, the executive agent of the program, carries out experiments-with support from the military services, the combatant commands, and other DOD organizations-to explore and analyze new joint operational and organizational concepts. The experiments can include studies and analyses, conferences, workshops, seminars, war games, and simulated or live field experiments. On the basis of these experiments, the Joint Forces Command recommends changes aimed at achieving significant improvements in joint capabilities. The Joint Requirements Oversight Council2 reviews the Command's recommendations, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is responsible for approving them. The Council also oversees the implementation of approved recommendations. The cumulative changes are expected to contribute to the way U.S. military forces are transformed. In November 2001, DOD also created an Office of Force Transformation to foster innovation and experimentation and assist the Secretary of Defense to develop guidance and identify strategies and policies for transformation. Because of the central role DOD's joint experimentation program plays in military transformation, we reviewed related activities to determine whether changes are needed to improve the program's ability to focus on future joint operations, military transformation, and the rapid integration of results.

This report addresses Test and Evaluation (T&E) of software intensive systems and the DoD's efforts to improve the software process. DoD software costs total over $30 billion a year, of which 2/3's is for maintaining, upgrading, and modifying operational systems already in production. Today's major defense systems depend largely on the quality of this complex and increasingly costly software. Because software error can cause a system to fail, possibly with life threatening consequences, software intensive systems need to be thoroughly tested before production. Charts and tables.

This Test Operations Procedure (TOP) provides guidance for planning tests of system-peculiar test, measurement, and diagnostic equipment (TMDE) including Test Program Sets (TPS) needed to support a system, to ensure its conformance with requirements documents, Acquisition Plan (AP), Test Program Set Management Plan (TPSMP), and Item Integrated Logistics Support Plan (ILSP). Subtests to satisfy the requirements for the particular TMDE and test type (DT II and III) can be selected or supplemented from those listed in the test procedures. Originator supplied keywords include: Diagnostic equipment; Environmental tests; Interface tests; System peculiar test equipment, Test equipment.