DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE HEARINGS BEFORE THE U.S. Con SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE Λ COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES EIGHTY-FOURTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION SUBCOMMITTEE ON DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS GEORGE H. MAHON, Texas, Chairman GEORGE H. MAHON, Texas ANTONIO M. FERNANDEZ, New Mexico OTTO E. PASSMAN, Louisiana LOUIS C. RABAUT, Michigan II JOHN TABER, New York RICHARD B. WIGGLESWORTH, Massachusetts H. CARL ANDERSEN, Minnesota ERRETT P. SCRIVNER, Kansas FREDERIC R. COUDERT, JR., New York EARL WILSON, Indiana GLENN R. DAVIS, Wisconsin BENJAMIN F. JAMES, Pennsylvania GERALD R. FORD, JR., Michigan EDWARD T. MILLER, Maryland KENNETH SPRANKLE, Clerk and Staff Director 841 DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS FOR 1957 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1956. OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE SALARIES AND EXPENSES, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE WITNESSES J. R. LOFTIS, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES Mr. MAHON. The committee will come to order. We will resume our hearing. We have for consideration first this morning the item for salaries and expenses, Office of the Secretary of Defense. We are pleased to have with us Mr. Loftis, the Director of the Office of Administrative Services; Mr. Wylie, the Director of the Budget and Finance Division; and Lt. Gen. Samuel E. Anderson, the Director of the Weapons Systems Evaluation Group. Will you proceed, Mr. Loftis. Mr. LOFTIS. Yes, sir. GENERAL STATEMENT Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, the budget estimate of $14.5 million includes $2.4 million for special contractual arrangements for weapons analysis and $12.1 million for the other activities of the Office of the Secretary of Defense. This latter amount, $12.1 million, is for civilian salaries and other necessary expenses, a decrease of $0.9 million in the funds estimated to be required for these purposes this year. These expenses are generally leveling off at reduced rates established this year. REDUCED PERSONNEL REQUIREMENTS In spite of increased pressure to add more personnel to handle added duties and responsibilities, some reductions have been accomplished. For example, the Assistant Secretary for Manpower, Personnel, and Reserve has consolidated under single direction all the (1) separate aspects of his security responsibilities and is getting more effective results with fewer people. Similarly he consolidated a variety of related functions in the fields of civil-defense liaison and wartime readiness planning. Through this means and other adjustments, he has effected a net reduction of 22 persons, or 7 percent, and at the same time provided for new or increased responsibilities such as industrial personnel security review, reserve affairs, and visual presentation analysis. Overall, the appropriation this year provided for 1,585 civilians and 571 military or a total of 2,156. This was 75 less than the number provided in fiscal year 1955. In reviewing our needs for personnel last summer it was felt that the personnel provided by the appropriation was inadequate and that somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,679 civilians, 589 military, or a total of 2,268 would be more realistic. After reviewing this with the Secretary, new reduced targets were established to be achieved this year. The budget for the fiscal year 1957 is based on the reduced personnel limitations established for this year. It provides for 1,321 civilians, 568 military, or a total of 1,889. We propose to continue this next year our efforts to find opportunities for doing a better job with fewer people. Some additional emphasis will be placed on obtaining from time to time advice and assistannce on especially complex or technical matters from outside experts, either as individuals or firms. There will be more physical audits in the field. The Secretary has recently approved a new statement of policy governing the preparation and implementation of Department of Defense policy issuances that has far-reachiing implications. It provides the framework for getting better policy directives and for prompter and more effective implementation. Among other things, this new policy requires that there be more physical audit of operations in the field checking on the effectiveness of established policies and ascertaining the need for revisions to these policies. CATALOGING PROGRAM One significant change affecting our requirements for appropriations next year is that the cataloging program reaches an important milestone this fall with the completion of the development phase. We have always considered this phase of the effort as temporary; that is, having a terminal date. Special procedures and priorities have been established to accelerate this work. Substantial sums have been invested and now, to preserve that investment and realize the advantages to be gained from the Federal catalog, it is necessary that we extend to the maintenance of the catalog similar special procedures and priorities. The processing time element becomes even more critical in maintaining the catalog than in the developmental stage. For these reasons we started this past year planning the most effective organization and procedures for permanent maintenance of the catalog. As a permanent operation, we believe these functions can best be carried out with a central group responsive to the needs of all the procurement services. Accordingly, it is planned to establish this central group as the combined responsibility of the three military departments under the single direction of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Supply and Logistics. The funds required for the central cataloging operation which have heretofore been provided in this appropriation will, for the fiscal year 1957, be included in the appropriation requests of the military departments. This year it is estimated that approximately $1.3 millions will be spent from the appropriation for "Salaries and expenses, OSD" for the central cataloging developmental operations. This item has been deleted from the appropriation request for 1957. SCIENTIFIC WEAPONS SYSTEMS EVALUATION Another significant factor affecting the requirements for appropriations this year is the $2.4 million needed in order to expand our facilities for scientific weapons systems evaluation. The Rockefeller Committee in its review of the Department of Defense in the spring of 1953 reported that: In addition to the military members, this group (the Weapons Systems Evaluation Group) should include a small staff of outstanding scientists and engineers to make studies of our present and future weapons systems and those of other countries, their relations to strategy and tactics, and their comparative effectiveness and cost. It would rely for a great part of its data on the studies prepared in the operations research and operations evaluation groups attached to the three military departments. At the same time the Weapons Systems Evaluation Group should be enabled to make use of the contract method to obtain operations research studies from outside the Government, as the three military departments now do. The Weapons Systems Evaluation Group should be at least as strong an organization as the operations research agencies now maintained by contract by the three military departments. Since this report was made, steps have been taken to move in the direction recommended. The group was provided a small staff of approximately 20 of the most carefully selected scientists and engineers available. Authorization was granted for more than this number, but the relatively few qualified operations research scientists available and the great demand for their services by outside operations research organizations has prevented the Weapons Systems Evaluation Group from obtaining at any time its full authorized complement. As a result the group has not only made full use of the studies prepared by the operations research and operations evaluation groups attached to the three military departments, but has also frequently called on those groups for the loan of personnel for extended periods. Although this practice may be justified to meet an emergency, it is quite unsatisfactory as a continuing arrangement. Other steps taken since the Rockefeller Committee report was made include modest provisions for the Weapons Systems Evaluation Group to obtain operations research studies by contract. In fiscal year 1955 this amounted to $25,000, and in 1956, $80,000. In the fall of 1954 it became apparent that more needed to be done to improve both the timeliness and the quantity of studies by the group. The pace of new weapons development was outstripping the capabilities of this group to provide the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff with evaluations within the time when decisions had to be made. |