Each component has established a ManTech office within its organization to set policies and procedures for operating its ManTech program and determining which projects to fund. The funding trends for the program since fiscal year 1991 are shown in figure 1. Needs Are Generally Being Met, According to Users and Based on Our Analysis of Project Selection Processes

Users in the military services and DLA look to the ManTech Program to help meet certain needs related to weapons systems they are responsible for, such as developing technologies, products and processes that will reduce the total cost and improve the manufacturing quality of their systems. In each case, there was a documented justification to award the work on a sole source basis. DOD Is Missing Opportunities to Conduct More Joint Projects and Cannot Effectively Measure Success

DOD is not managing the ManTech Program as efficiently and effectively as possible. The department would also know what technologies had been successfully transferred and the extent to which the ManTech Program improved the quality of weapons systems. We discussed various manufacturing technology-related issues including overseeing responsibilities with officials from the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Science & Technology), Office of Technology Transition; the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Science and Technology; the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Research and Technology; the Office Naval Research; and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Acquisition), Science, Technology, and Engineering. To assess the degree to which projects are awarded competitively, we randomly selected a sample of ManTech projects from the above list of fiscal years 1999 and 2000 projects for the Army, Navy, Air Force and DLA based on levels of funding, length of the projects, and varying types of technologies and weapons systems. We then reviewed the contract files to determine whether competitive award procedures were used.
What GAO Found

The Department of Defense (DOD) established the Defense Manufacturing Technology Program to develop and apply advanced manufacturing technologies to reduce the total cost and improve the manufacturing quality of weapon systems. By maturing and validating emerging manufacturing technology and transferring it to the factory floor, the program bridges the gap between technology invention and industrial application. The program, which has existed in various forms since the 1950's, received about $200 million in funding fiscal year 2001. DOD's Office of the Under Secretary of Defense provides guidance and oversight to the Army, Navy, Air Force, and the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), but each establishes its own policies and procedures for running the program and determines which technologies to develop. Users told GAO that the program was responding to their needs by developing technologies, products, and processes that reduced the cost and improved the quality of weapons systems. To the extent practicable, DOD used competitive procedures to award the work done under the program. The Army, Air Force, and DLA competitively awarded most of the projects GAO reviewed for fiscal years 1999 and 2000, and the remaining non-competitive awards were based on documented sole source justifications. DOD is missing opportunities to conduct more joint programs and lacks effective measures of program success. Joint projects would enable the services to address the funding issue by leveraging limited funding and integrating common requirements and approaches for developing manufacturing technologies.