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Congress Reacts To Continued Hemorrhage Of U.S. High-Tech Base By Directing DOD To Create An Industrial Policy Based On 'Trusted Sources'
By Richard McCormack
richard@manufacturingnews.com
Congress is growing increasingly worried about the Department of Defense's ability to buy "trusted" components for national security systems from a supply chain that is increasingly shifting offshore.
In its latest Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009, Congress directs the Pentagon to develop strategies for assuring "trusted" sources for printed circuit boards, semiconductors, electronics and even batteries. It defines the terms "trust" as referring to "the high confidence by the Department of Defense in the national ability to secure national security systems by assessing the integrity of the people and processes used to design, generate, manufacture and distribute national security critical components."
In the version of the authorization (HR-5658) that passed the House on May 22, Congress directs the Secretary of Defense to conduct a "comprehensive assessment" of acquisition programs "to identify vulnerabilities in the supply chain of each program's information processing system that potentially comprise the level of trust in such systems" including microcircuits, software and firmware. It wants the Secretary of Defense to identify a lead organization within the military to develop "an integrated strategy for ensuring trust in the supply chain for acquisition programs."
A department-wide strategy dealing with "trust" should "be sufficiently specific to provide guidance for the planning, programming, budgeting and execution process in order to ensure acquisition programs have necessary resources to implement all appropriate elements of the strategy," says the authorization bill. Congress wants a report within 12 months from the Secretary of Defense describing the strategy.
In the area of application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), Congress directs the Secretary of Defense to issue a policy requiring all ASICs used in the military "to employ only trusted foundry services to fabricate their custom-designed integrated circuits."
In the area of printed circuit boards (PCBs), Congress wants the DOD to name an "executive agent" to oversee activities related to assuring a trusted supply and technological development. The initiative is in response to a 2005 National Academy of Sciences report describing a United States circuit board industry that no longer dominates technologically and accounts for about 10 percent of global production. Without a printed circuit board industrial base, the Defense Department risks not having access to state-of-the-art designs for future military weapons, nor the ability to replace boards needed in existing weapons systems.
The Senate Armed Services Committee notes that printed circuit board technologies "are critical components of numerous defense systems and cost the Department roughly $500 million annually," says the Senate Defense Authorization for 2009. "There are strong and growing concerns related to the development of next-generation capabilities, to preserving assured access to trusted sources of technology due to a diminishing domestic manufacturing base, and even to the trustworthiness of existing supplies of printed circuit board technology being used for military systems."
The authorization says that DOD's efforts to deal with this situation "have been under funded and disjointed in the past." An executive agent "can raise the profile of risk issues related to printed circuit board technological, as well as production and acquisition issues, and help ensure that these concerns are better addressed in future budgets, plans and programs."
The executive agent will develop a roadmap that assures the Defense Department "has access to manufacturing capabilities and expertise" needed to meet future military requirements. The agent will "assure that continuing expertise in printed circuit board [technology] is available to the Department."
In the semiconductor area, Congress tells DOD to begin an assessment of standards used to procure commercial semiconductors. The undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition Technology and Logistics "shall conduct an assessment of various methods for verification of trust of the semiconductors procured by the Department of Defense from commercial sources for utilization in mission critical components of potentially vulnerable defense systems," says the authorization bill. The assessment will identify the existing methods used to determine if a semiconductor made by a commercial company can be trusted for use in a military weapon system. As more leading-edge semiconductor capability shifts out of the United States, DOD needs to work with the national laboratories, institutions of higher education and private sector organizations that are currently developing weapons systems to determine trusted sources of supply. DOD must also assess the research and development efforts "necessary to develop methods for verification of trust of semiconductors to meet the needs of the Department of Defense," says Congress. The assessment must be completed by December 31, 2009.
Elsewhere in the authorization bill, Congress directs the Secretary of Defense to work with the Energy Department on creating a multi-year technology roadmap for the development of advanced battery manufacturing capabilities and a supply chain "necessary to ensure that the Department of Defense has assured access to advanced battery technologies," says section 212 of the Senate version of the act. The roadmap would identify current and future "capability" gaps, cost savings goals and "assured technology access goals that require advances in battery technology and manufacturing capabilities."
The DOD must describe "specific" research technology and manufacturing "timelines and estimates of funding necessary for achieving such goals and milestones," says the authorization bill.
The battery roadmap will also describe "specific mechanisms for coordinating the activities of federal agencies, state and local governments, coalition partners, private industry and academia covered by the roadmap," which will be submitted to Congress a year after passage of the authorization bill.
In other areas of technology, congressional authorizers direct DOD to study the feasibility of deploying solar energy systems at forward operating locations. The study will examine the potential of solar power to reduce fuel needed to provide electricity at forward-operating locations. It will determine "the extent to which such reduction will decrease the risk of casualties by reducing the number of convoys needed to supply fuel to forward operating locations." The study, to be conducted by March 1, 2009, will determine the cost of using solar energy compared to current electricity-generating methods, solar's operational requirements and its environmental benefits.
Congress is seeking a similar study due on the same date on the potential of creating coal-to-liquid fuels.
Congress is also worried about the nation's industrial ability to produce a new generation of small arms for the military. It directs the Secretary of Defense to generate a report 120 days after the passage of the authorization describing the health of the small arms industrial base. It wants to know the current inventory of small arms, the acquisition objectives of DOD and the budgetary status of small arms programs including pistols, carbines, rifles, light, medium and heavy machine guns.
Included in the report will be a plan "for a joint acquisition strategy for small arms modernization, with emphasis on a possible near-term competition for a new pistol and carbine," says the authorization bill in Sec. 142. The report will contain an analysis of current small arms research and development programs, and an analysis of current "capability gaps."
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