DOD Is Making Progress in Developing the ORS Concept to Meet Warfighter Needs, but the Concept Is in the Early Stages of Development and Not Commonly Understood

DOD has taken several steps to develop the ORS concept to meet  warfighter needs; however, the concept is still in the early stages of its  development and not commonly understood by all members of the  warfighter and national security space communities. DOD has developed a  process for converting warfighter needs into formal requirements and  identifying potential ORS solutions. In spite of this  progress, common understanding of the ORS concept is lacking because  DOD has not clearly defined key elements of the ORS concept and has not  effectively communicated the concept to key stakeholders. Since the  Joint ORS Office was established in May 2007, it has developed a process  that converts warfighter needs into formal requirements and potential ORS  solutions. DOD also issued an Implementation Plan in April 2008 and  continues to develop further ORS guidance. Our  prior work examining successful organizational transformations shows the  necessity to communicate clearly defined goals and specific objectives to  key stakeholders. Initial ORS planning documents—the Plan for ORS and  the Initial Concept of Operations—are broad and lack the specificity  needed to guide the ORS concept, according to some members of the  warfighter and national security space communities. Additionally, DOD has not communicated well with the intelligence  community regarding the ORS concept. Officials from the National  Security Agency said that they are very concerned about the lack of  consultation that has been done with the intelligence community regarding  the ORS concept. DOD Plans to Integrate ORS into Existing DOD and Intelligence Processes and Architecture, but Has Not Identified How It Will Accomplish This

DOD has recognized the need to integrate the ORS concept into the  warfighter and national security space communities’ processes and  architecture, but it has not yet determined specific steps for achieving  integration. However, integrating space systems is a complex activity that involves  many entities inside DOD and the intelligence community and may take  more time to accomplish than expected. Senior ORS officials have told us that the ORS concept is still  too new to begin its integration, but combatant command and intelligence  community officials are concerned about how the ORS concept will be  integrated into their existing processes for submitting warfighter needs  and processing ISR data. According to the 1999 DOD Space Policy, an integrated national security  space architecture that addresses defense and intelligence missions shall  be developed to the maximum extent feasible in order to eliminate  programs operating in isolation of one another and minimize unnecessary  duplication of missions and functions and to achieve efficiencies. DOD has acknowledged that  the ORS concept needs to be integrated and one of the goals in the ORS  Implementation Plan is to integrate the ORS concept into the existing  space architecture between 2010 and 2015. Given the complex environment of the warfighter and national security  space communities, changes that affect one organization can have an  effect on integrating national security space systems, and may take longer  than anticipated. Appendix I: Scope and Methodology

To determine whether the Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) concept  is being developed to support warfighter needs and the extent to which  DOD has a plan that integrates ORS into existing DOD and intelligence  community processes and architecture, we reviewed and analyzed ORS  planning documents, the ORS concept of operations, and ORS processes  for meeting warfighter needs.
Why GAO Did This Study

The Department of Defense's (DOD) operational dependence on space has placed new and increasing demands on current space systems to meet commanders' needs. DOD's Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) concept is designed to more rapidly satisfy commanders' needs for information and intelligence during ongoing operations. Given the potential for ORS to change how DOD acquires and fields space capabilities to support the warfighter, this report discusses to what extent DOD (1) is developing ORS to support warfighter requirements and (2) has a plan that integrates ORS into existing DOD and intelligence community processes and architecture. GAO reviewed and analyzed ORS planning documents, the ORS concept of operations, and processes for meeting warfighter needs and also interviewed defense and intelligence community officials who are involved with the ORS concept.

What GAO Found

DOD is making some progress in developing the ORS concept, but whether it will meet warfighter requirements is unclear, principally because the concept is in the early stages of development and not commonly understood by all members of the warfighter and national security space communities. Our prior work examining successful organizational transformations shows the need to communicate to stakeholders often and early and to clearly define specific objectives. Since the Joint ORS Office was established in May 2007, it has developed a process for converting warfighter needs into formal requirements and identifying potential ORS solutions. Moreover, DOD issued the ORS Implementation Plan in April 2008 and is also developing new ORS guidance documents. However, GAO found disparity in stakeholder understanding of the ORS concept within the warfighter and national security space communities. This disparity exists because DOD has not clearly defined key elements of the ORS concept and has not effectively communicated the concept with key stakeholders. For example, initial ORS planning documents are broad and lack the specificity needed to guide the ORS concept, according to some members of the warfighter and national security space communities. Moreover, officials from the intelligence community were concerned about DOD's lack of consultation and communication with them regarding the ORS concept. Without having a well-defined and commonly understood concept, DOD's ability to fully meet warfighter needs may be hampered. DOD has acknowledged the need to integrate ORS into existing DOD and intelligence community processes and architecture, but it has not fully addressed how it will achieve this integration. The 1999 DOD Space Policy states that an integrated national security space architecture that addresses defense and intelligence missions shall be developed to the maximum extent feasible in order to minimize unnecessary duplication of missions. DOD plans to begin integrating any new ORS processes or systems that are developed for ORS sometime between 2010 and 2015. However, integrating national security space systems can be a complex activity, involving many entities within DOD and the intelligence community. GAO previously reported that DOD's existing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) processes activities already face significant integration challenges, and adding new ORS systems into the existing ISR enterprise will increase the challenges of an already complex and challenging environment. Given the concept's immaturity, members of the national security space community have raised concerns about how the ORS concept will be integrated with existing DOD and intelligence processes and architecture, and voiced concerns about being burdened by an additional new requirements process specific to ORS. Nonetheless, as GAO described earlier, DOD is developing a process unique to ORS for submitting ORS warfighter requirements. The complexity of the national security space environment calls for DOD to begin to adequately plan integration of the ORS concept now to help ensure that DOD avoids the risk of duplicative efforts and wasted resources.