Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
8/1/2014
The delivery of key nuclear detonation sensor equipment for use on Air Force satellites has been jeopardized by poor project management at Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, according to a Department of Energy Inspector General’s Office report released this week. The National Nuclear Security Administration was tasked with producing eight global burst detector payloads for use on Global Positioning System III satellites, and Los Alamos and Sandia produce the major components for the detector, with Sandia serving as the integrator for the payloads. The IG said the agency dedicated approximately $300 million to the program from Fiscal Year 2011 to FY 2013.
As of June, the NNSA had delivered two of the payloads and was working on a third, but the IG said a lack of cost and schedule data created uncertainty about whether Sandia and Los Alamos could meet payload delivery dates. Sandia and Los Alamos officials also could not break down the cost per payload because the IG said it was told that costs were not broken down per payload. “Without timely delivery of the GBD payloads, the nation’s capability to detect nuclear detonations from orbiting satellites may be jeopardized,” the IG said, noting that the Air Force might have to build mass simulators to compensate for missing payloads so the satellites could function properly.
Project Mgmt. Shortfalls Impact Evaluations, Decision-Making
In fact, the IG said in July 2013 the labs expected to deliver the third payload late and questioned whether they could build the fourth, sixth and eighth payloads at all due to budget cuts, but lab officials said in February of this year that they expected the Air Force to push back the delivery dates for the remaining payloads and FY 2014 budgets to increase. The Air Force did not confirm those plans to the IG, it said.
The IG also said the lack of project management principles prevented NNSA from evaluating the performance of its contractors and hurt its ability to make decisions about the Space-Based Nuclear Detonation Detection Program. “This is significant because the current economic climate and associated Federal budgetary concerns dictate finding ways to improve efficiency and reduce the cost of agency operations,” the IG said.
Technical Focus Short-Sighted
According to the IG’s report, NNSA and contractor officials said the focus of the program was ensuring the payloads met technical specifications. “While we recognize the importance of meeting technical specifications, it is also important that management employ sound project management practices to measure cost and schedule performance,” the IG said. “These tools, while they may initially add to SNDD program costs, would enhance management’s ability to recognize issues and permit them to take corrective actions to ultimately reduce costs and improve schedule performance when necessary.”
The IG said the NNSA agreed with its findings and said it planned to introduce an “integrated systems engineering function” for the SNDD program. “Management will require a more detailed work breakdown structure, synchronize resource-loaded schedules and improve the rigor of data presented at quarterly program management reviews,” the IG said.
