Dr. Christian Keyser at the AFRL Munitions Directorate examines laboratory equipment designed to study the way that weapon seeker optics detect light. (DVIDS)
WASHINGTON — An internal Pentagon review published Wednesday warns that decades of underfunding has led to alarming deterioration in facilities doing military research.
“RDTE [Research, Development, Test, & Evaluation] infrastructure is deteriorating and weakening its ability to maintain a technically advanced warfighting capability … forcing RDT&E organizations to operate in facilities that pose documented safety risks and technical limitations,” reads the report, entitled “Supporting the Warfighter,” the result of the review led by Assistant Secretary for Science & Technology Joseph Jewell. “Authorized major MILCON [Military Construction] projects for modernization of critical joint-mission RDT&E infrastructure continually slip due to the Services’ reprioritizing of scarce MILCON funds toward other operationally relevant priorities.”
The review’s number one recommendation? Ask Congress to change the law on Military Construction appropriations by creating a special fund for research infrastructure — one that’s fenced off so that the armed services can’t “reprioritize” (i.e. raid) it to address urgent short-term problems like fixing moldy barracks or inadequate on-base childcare.
