By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Aug. 27, 2009 – Senior defense leaders will use a recently issued report on the National Security Personnel System when they decide what to do with the civilian personnel system this fall, a Pentagon official said here today. This spring, Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III directed that a comprehensive review of NSPS be conducted to ascertain whether the system is fair and understandable to participating employees.
The Defense Business Board’s task group report issued this week recommended a “reconstruction” of the NSPS. The group was chaired by former Deputy Defense Secretary Rudy DeLeon.
“The leadership of the Department of Defense is committed to fair, transparent processes and personnel systems,” Brad Bunn, the Defense Department’s program executive officer for NSPS, told Pentagon Channel and American Forces Press Service reporters.
Internal surveys indicated that some employees were unhappy with NSPS, specifically with regard to performance evaluations.
The board’s report, Bunn said, will be used by senior Pentagon and other government leaders when they decide what to do about NSPS this fall. Other issues cited in the report include pay pools and their lack of transparency, as well as questions about the current pay band structure.
“This process of reviewing NSPS has gone a long way to helping inform leadership what those issues are,” Bunn said.
NSPS has helped to tie employee performance goals to organizational goals, Bunn pointed out.
NSPS’s pay-for-performance system replaced 50-year-old civil service rules that rewarded employees for length of service rather than performance.
The more than 200,000 defense civilians who have been transferred into NSPS since the system began three years ago, Bunn said, will be performance rated this fall under current NSPS policies and procedures.
The Defense Business Board’s report on NSPS is available for public view on the Internet, Bunn said.
“I would encourage NSPS organizations, employees, supervisors and managers to read the report, particularly the leadership in those organizations,” Bunn said.
http://www.defenselink.mil//news/newsarticle.aspx?id=55648
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Missile Defense Technology Moves from Testing to Fielding
| By Fred W. Baker III American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Aug. 27, 2009 – Boosted by a few strong years of testing successes, much of the United States’ missile defense technology that once was questioned is now ready to be fielded.
O’Reilly said that 39 of the last 45 tries at stopping a test missile were successful. The failures were mostly at the start of the testing, and in the past few years, all hit their mark, except one that had a manufacturing problem. It was fixed, and three weeks ago successfully hit its target in a test, O’Reilly said. Most of the new technologies fielded will be to bolster missile defense for deployed troops. Right now, O’Reilly said, forward deployed bases are exposed to missile threats and there is a large gap in U.S. capabilities to protect them. This summer, both Iran and North Korea tested their ballistic missiles systems. And several other nations have as many as a few hundred such missiles in their arsenals. “We want to provide the same level of protection against ballistic missiles that we enjoy today against cruise missiles or against aircraft,” O’Reilly said. The Defense Department recently committed an additional $900 million toward fielding the Army’s theater high altitude area defense mobile missile defense system. The agency has finished seven of eight required tests of the system, and O’Reilly said he expects to see it in the field next year. The Army also will get some new radar systems. The Navy’s Aegis-class ballistic missile defense ships are being equipped with some improved missiles. The Aegis ship’s capability was demonstrated to the world when it stopped a crippled reconnaissance satellite over the Pacific Ocean before it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere in February 2008. The Aegis ships will have a second-generation interceptor fielded next year, O’Reilly said. And the Pentagon has proposed converting six more Aegis-class ships to provide additional theater missile defense coverage. “This capability will provide protection in the theater against ballistic missiles -- short-range missiles, medium range and missiles up to ranges greater than 3,000 kilometers,” O’Reilly said. As much as $8 billion is slated for additional missile defense technologies in the future, the general said. Two demonstrator satellites will be launched into space next month. The pair of satellites will “talk” to each other, extending the capabilities of other sensors in place to detect missiles. By 2012, the agency will test the satellites, launching an interceptor from an Aegis ship toward a test target. This will allow the ship to fire at a target that is beyond its own radar ranges. Eventually, O’Reilly said, the pair will be part of a larger constellation of connected satellites. Plans are to develop a satellite system that tracks missiles around the world. “It’s just an extremely exciting area,” he said. “And all theaters across the world now are receiving missile defense command and control and will soon be receiving the capability.” In the next five years, extensive testing will take place with more than 56 flight tests, many including multiple missiles in the air at the same time, across the entire Pacific Ocean. In that testing, the agency will use a mix of satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles, ships and ground-based radars. http://www.defenselink.mil//news/newsarticle.aspx?id=55649 |
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