The new DoD automatic test systems executive organization

In 1990, the DoD Inspector General began a series of audits which led to language in the FY-1994 Appropriations Bill recommending that the Secretary of Defense direct a DoD ATS acquisition policy and establish a formal implementation mechanism to ensure strategy compliance. On 29 April 1994, USD (A&T) established DoD ATS policy and appointed the Navy as the DoD Executive Agent for ATS. NAVAIR PMA260 was appointed by Navy to serve as the ATS Executive Agent Office. The EAO organized an ATS Management Board that consisted of the Colonel/Navy Captain level ATS principals from each of the services. A number of Integrated Product Teams were established under the EAO and AMB to carry out the main technical functions of the EA. In 1997, the services formally agreed via a Joint Memorandum of Agreement on the various policies, procedures and organizational responsibilities to be implemented. On 31 March 2003, the General Accounting Office (GAO) submitted a report which made several recommendations to the Secretary of Defense. In response to the GAO Report, OSD(AT&L) directed the services to perform an assessment of the EA function. A Joint Service IPT was chartered to define alternative approaches to executing the ATS EA role and to provide an ATS EA assessment report that contained a recommended course of action. OSD directed that the AMB continue to serve as the DoD coordinating body for ATS matters, that NAVAIR PMA260 be directed to continue the Executive Agent Office functions as the DoD ATS Executive Directorate, and that Service Acquisition Executives agree upon procedures for ATS acquisitions in a new Joint MOA. This new JMOA defines the revised DoD ATS organizational structure and details responsibilities and procedures to be followed throughout DoD for ATS acquisition and modernization.