Defense authorization bill filled with tech provisions

When the Senate considers its version of the fiscal 2003 defense authorization bill this week, it will consider several technology-related provisions that would promote military transformation and increase the private sector's role in homeland security.

"In the wake of the terrorist activities in 2001, an overwhelming number of technology developers have approached the Department of Defense, Office of Homeland Security and Congress with proposals for research or technology in support of the war on terrorism," the Senate Armed Services Committee noted last month in a report on the bill.

The Pentagon received more than 12,000 proposals last fall in response to its broad appeal for new technological ideas to combat terrorism. But Defense officials have yet to review or respond to many of those proposals, according to the committee.

The measure, S. 2514, would establish a panel within the Defense Department to review such proposals and recommend potential contractors to the undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics. The review panel would consist of technology experts from the Pentagon and military services, as well as the private and academic sectors.

The new panel would be part of an outreach program required under the bill, which would make it easier for small businesses and non-traditional defense contractors to work with the Pentagon. "This part of the industrial base can and should play a critical role in the development of technologies to fight terrorism at home and overseas," the committee said.

The legislation also would create a $50 million "technology transition" initiative to deliver new technologies to the battlefield more quickly. In the Senate committee report, bill authors noted their "longstanding concern about the [Defense] Department's ability to effectively and efficiently transition technologies out of the laboratory and into the hands of the war-fighter."

The bill calls for a new Technology Transition Council, which would include military acquisitions officials and technology industry leaders. It also would require each branch of the military to designate a senior official to serve as a technology transition advocate.

"Aggressive leadership and championing of new technologies from the highest levels of the department is necessary to overcome organizational and cultural barriers and affect real technological change," the committee wrote.

The legislation also would require the military services and several Defense agencies to improve their software-acquisition processes. "Many major defense acquisition programs are heavily reliant on the development of complex computer software," the committee said. "In a number of cases, mishandling of software acquisition has jeopardized an entire program."

The legislation calls for nearly $10.2 billion for Defense's science and technology programs, which would be a $170 million increase over President Bush's budget request. Those additional funds include $33 million to combat cyber warfare, in part through scholarship programs to train the "next generation of information security specialists."