Oversight of missile defense agency reduced

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld outlined oversight exemptions in a memo last month that elevated the Ballistic Missile Organization to the MDA. The agency will be exempted from Pentagon regulations that force military commanders to detail requirements for new weapons systems, according to the memo. In addition, the MDA will not be required to report on program schedules and costs, and many of its testing programs will not be overseen by the Defense Department's test evaluation office.

The exemptions are to help streamline oversight programs that have often imposed intrusive paperwork, overlapping information requests and other unnecessary demands on missile defense authorities, said Pete Aldridge, undersecretary of defense for acquisition.

"We needed to give them a process by which they could put all these things together without all the encumbrances of having so much oversight and so many briefings that have to be done at multiple levels," Aldridge said.

MDA Director Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish will be responsible for missile defense programs while they are in their experimental phases, according to Rumsfeld's memo. Once the systems are ready for procurement, they will be turned over to the Army, Navy, or Air Force, at which point they will be subject to traditional oversight procedures, according to the Post.