Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume XLIV, Part 1, National Security Policy, 1985–1988

249. Letter From Secretary of Defense Carlucci to Senator Nunn¹

Washington, March 31, 1988

Dear Mr. Chairman:

Thank you for your letter of February 12, 1988,² concerning the Strategic Defense Initiative. You raised two basic issues with your letter: the need to “begin immediately” to conduct operational testing; and, the internal management of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) within the Department of Defense.

Addressing the management issue first, I can assure you that Dr. Robert Costello answered correctly during his confirmation hearings concerning his relationship to the SDI program. I agree with my predecessor that the SDI organization was created to provide strong, centralized management for research; however, my guidance does not preclude other members of DoD from carrying out their responsibilities, nor does it provide any mechanism to “work around Congressional Authorization or Appropriation Acts.” We will work with the Congress through appropriate procedures to avoid any undue fragmenting of the program. The Department’s position was clarified in a December 31, 1987, memorandum (attached), which reaffirms the OSD staff oversight responsibility concerning planning, programming, and budgeting for its SDI program.

The directive on operational testing has not been superseded. Test and Evaluation (T&E) plays a critical role in the acquisition process. With the creation of the Office of the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) by Congress in 1983, operational test and evaluation (OT&E) results have now become a key determinant in program approvals.

That portion of OT&E conducted throughout the acquisition process prior to the decision to proceed to full-rate production is called initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E). IOT&E is conducted to forecast operational effectiveness and suitability and to provide insights about the potential operational worth of a system throughout its acquisition life. The “operational testing involving field tests, under realistic combat conditions, of actual components of SDI systems” is clearly not feasible in the traditional sense. Therefore, early involvement to develop adequate operational evaluation criteria and appropriate test procedures is warranted.

While development test and evaluation (DT&E) and IOT&E are separate activities and are conducted by different test communities, they interact frequently and are generally complementary. DT&E, also conducted throughout the acquisition process, provides a view of the potential to reach technical objectives, while IOT&E provides an assessment of the potential to satisfy the user’s operational effectiveness and suitability requirements prior to commitment to full production.

The scope, complexity and national importance of the SDI program, and the requirement for early operational assessments at annual Defense Acquisition Board reviews, require an innovative management and organizational approach to OT&E. In order to provide the assessments required by Congress and DoD, the operational testing community must increasingly employ modeling and simulation when hardware is not yet available or cannot be tested cost effectively under realistic conditions. In recognition of this my predecessor directed, and I fully support, the DOT&E approach to providing independent and objective operational evaluations and assessments of the strategic defense system from a total-system perspective.

In summary, there is a real need to begin the operational test activities for the strategic defense system now even though no full scale development decision is anticipated for some time. In regard to internal management of the SDI program, I plan to bring to bear all of the resources of my staff to ensure success of the President’s highest priority program.

Sincerely,

Frank Carlucci

Attachment

Memorandum From the Deputy Secretary of Defense (Taft) to the Secretaries of the Military Departments, the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff (Crowe), the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition (Costello), the Assistant Secretary of Defense, Comptroller (Helm), the Director of Program Analysis and Evaluation, Department of Defense (Chu), and the Director of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (Abrahamson)³

Washington, December 31, 1987

SUBJECT

• Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) Program

Earlier this year the Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) completed a review of the SDI Program.⁴ Progress was judged sufficient to proceed with demonstration and validation of the Strategic Defense System Phase I, subject to the condition that the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization take action to resolve certain issues raised by the DAB. Further DAB reviews are planned, and activity is now underway to provide the necessary data to resolve the issues identified.

I view this as a very positive indication that the program is moving successfully into the defense acquisition process. As the SDI Program moves from a series of technological concepts to a number of technically feasible systems, the DAB can provide not only the thorough review appropriate for a program of this magnitude, but can also provide constructive and supportive ideas which will work to the long term benefit of the program.

As Secretary of Defense, I want to bring to bear all the resources of my staff to ensure the success of this critically important program. I look forward to the continued constructive involvement of not only the DAB but the staffs responsible for normal planning, programming and budgeting activities. My intention is that the DAB oversight and review process as prescribed in DoD Directive 5000.1 will build confidence and provide a wider base of support within DoD and the Congress for the SDI program.

William H. Taft, IV
Deputy Secretary of Defense

1. Source: Reagan Library, Frank Carlucci Files, SECDEF Carlucci’s Library Subject—1988: SDI [03/30/1988–03/31/1988]. No classification marking.
2. Not found.
3. No classification marking.
4. Not found.