The Government Accountability Office has told Congress it would not be in such a hurry to gut Cheyenne Mountain AFS, Colo., and transfer various functions to nearby Peterson Air Force Base, relatively close Schriever Air Force Base, and all the way to California at Vandenberg Air Force Base. NORAD/US Northern Command, headquartered at Peterson, announced the plan last year as a cost saving and operational streamlining move. Last fall, then-NORAD boss, Adm. Timothy Keating, said he had alleviated concerns expressed by Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.). However, now the GAO says the two commands have no documentation to support a projected $200 million annual savings and haven’t completed security analyses. Officials told the GAO that the primary impetus for the move is to increase situational awareness across the two commands and provide a single voice to decision-makers. So far, though, the commands haven’t actually done “an analysis of the operational effects—both positive and negative—of the move,” states the GAO.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
