President Signs Levin-McCain Bill to Reform Weapon Systems Acquisition Process

May 22, 2009 -- WASHINGTON – In a White House Rose Garden ceremony this morning, President Obama signed the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act of 2009, a bill by Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and John McCain (R-AZ), the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The bill will address the unreasonable cost and schedule estimates, unrealistic performance expectations, immature technologies, and repeated program changes that have led to explosive cost growth and costly schedule delays on so many of our major defense acquisition programs.

“Over many years, report after report has shown that there are fundamental problems with the way we buy major weapons systems,” said Levin. “Without serious steps to bring cost and schedule estimates and performance expectations in line with reality, billions more in taxpayer dollars would have been wasted. The legislation signed by President Obama today – and supported unanimously by both parties in both houses of Congress – will require the Department of Defense to take the necessary steps to avoid that continued waste.

“By establishing an independent office for cost estimates, beefing up engineering and testing capabilities and instituting other strong measures, this new law will put major weapons program on sound footing from the start and help to control future costs overruns, schedule delays and performance shortcomings.”

The Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act of 2009 contains provisions that will:

- Address problems with unreasonable performance requirements by requiring DOD to reestablish systems engineering organizations and developmental testing capabilities; make trade-offs between cost, schedule and performance early in the program cycle; and conduct preliminary design reviews before giving approval to new acquisition programs;

- Address problems with unreasonable cost and schedule estimates by establishing a new, independent director of cost assessment to ensure that unbiased data is available for senior DOD managers;

- Address problems with the use of immature technologies by requiring the Director of Defense Research and Engineering (DDR&E) to periodically review and assess the maturity of critical technologies and by directing the Department to make greater use of prototypes, including competitive prototypes, to prove that new technologies work before trying to produce them; and

- Address problems with costly changes in the middle of a program by tightening the so-called “Nunn-McCurdy” requirements for underperforming programs.

Source: Senator Carl Levin