Download or read book Defense Acquisition Infrastructure: Changes in RDT & E Laboratories and Centers written by and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As requested, the General Accounting Office (GAO) reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT & E) infrastructure. Specifically, GAO (1) reviewed previous studies on DOD's laboratory infrastructure to determine what actions DOD has taken to implement prior recommendations and (2) analyzed data on RDT & E infrastructure funding, workforce composition, and operating cost. This report summarizes and updates the information presented at the briefings. It also provides GAO's preliminary examination of lessons learned from successful consolidations that may be applicable to the federal laboratory infrastructure and will be the subject of a later report. Future spending increases for readiness and weapons modernization will have to come, in part, from infrastructure reduction savings, according to the Secretary of Defense. The combination of the operations and maintenance (O & M) and military personnel appropriations fund about 80 percent of DOD's total infrastructure activities. Thus, if DOD as a whole is to achieve significant infrastructure savings for future force modernization, then most of the savings must come from these two accounts. A segment of this infrastructure is comprised of a diverse network of laboratories and test and evaluation centers. The laboratories and centers are funded partly by the O & M account and, according to DOD officials, to a greater extent by the RDT & E and procurement accounts. In fiscal year 1994, DOD spent more than $22 billion - about 8 percent of its $266 billion budget.