The U.S. Air Force (USAF) has continued to take steps to provide a department-wide nuclear command, control and communications (NC3) oversight structure for the NC3 Weapons System, but its focus has mainly centered on sustaining the current system as it adds personnel for the new structure, according to a recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The NC3 system is comprised of a number of land, air, sea, and space-based components that are used to ensure connectivity between the president and nuclear forces. In recent years, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has taken a number of acquisition efforts on to modernize elements of the NC3 system.
GAO has published a number of assessments of NC3, with the first being released in 2013. Most recently, GAO issued a public report regarding NC3 modernization efforts in June 2015 and a classified report on the Air Force’s efforts to establish a new oversight structure for NC3 and various modernization efforts in January 2017.
For its most recent report, GAO was tasked by the Senate Armed Services Committee to provide an update of prior reviews of NC3 modernization efforts, which include the extent to which the Air Force has made progress in establishing a new oversight structure for NC3 capabilities and the status of a number of acquisition programs.
Citing USAF officials in its report, GAO stated that the Air Force has built up its understanding of the short-term sustainment needs for the component systems that currently make up the NC3 system, but it has not had the resources to focus on the long-term needs for it.
Additionally, each of the eight NC3 acquisition programs reviewed for GAO’s report have made progress towards meeting their acquisition goals. However, most of the programs have challenges remaining. One example cited by the report found that four programs have compressed schedules that could result in delays if any issues develop during development, production, or installation of the communications terminals.
According to GAO, the NC3 program executive office has stated that it plans to review the acquisition strategies and adjust them as appropriate prior to any finalization.
GAO offered no recommendations to the USAF or DOD at this time.