DDR&E HASC Testimony March 3, 2009

Not much progress to report I'm afraid. Mr. Shaffer's defense of DOD energy activities made before the House Armed Services (HASC) committee on readiness, in response to the just released, highly critical GAO report on energy efficiency (and the lack thereof) at forward operating bases, was a rehash of presentations given over the past year. Many technology-based initiatives are cited, including the oft (read: over) used reference to spray foam insulation of tents.

But most bothersome is the clear lack of progress on energy processes and metrics. The energy efficiency KPP has been up in the air for almost a decade, and now in 2009 it is announced that a study will soon commence: 

OUSD(AT&L) and the Joint Staff will soon embark on developing a methodology for implementing the Energy Efficiency key performance parameter (KPP), established in 2007. The study will help inform us of when to apply this energy-related KPP, and how to determine what the metrics should be for a given platform or system type.

And the next item updates the status of a decision made in 2006 to use the JLTV program (and two others) to pilot energy metrics practices.  Three years later here's where we are:

The OUSD (AT&L), the Army, and the Marine Corps are in the very early discussions about how best to set energy “productivity” metrics for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program. We expect this to be addressed in the program’s study plan prior to the next milestone decision, currently scheduled for 2011.

"Very early discussions."  This is not change we can believe in.