Test Capabilities Development: Central Test & Evaluation Investment Program

In 1987, Congress directed the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) to take a stronger role in managing its test and evaluation (T&E) support base. In response to this direction and a subsequent Department of Defense (DoD)-level review, the OSD established the Central Test and Evaluation Investment Program (CTEIP) in 1990. Operating with an average annual budget of $147M, CTEIP concurrently funds over 50 high-priority, critical, joint-use test capability projects. These projects range from short-term studies of new technology to the development of new full-scale test capabilities.

While CTEIP operates under the management of the Test Resource Management Center (TRMC), individual projects are proposed, executed, and sustained by the Services and Defense Agencies. CTEIP evaluates and selects for execution those proposed projects that best align with the objectives of the Strategic Plan for DoD T&E Resources; provide the greatest return on investment; make efficient use of limited test resources; leverage Service investments; and promote joint cooperation and development. The goal of CTEIP is to provide enterprise solutions that benefit the Department as a whole.

To achieve these objectives, CTEIP funds 3 categories of projects:

• Joint Improvement and Modernization (JIM) projects
• Resource Enhancement Project (REP) projects
• Threat Systems (TS) projects

The JIM portfolio funds the development and improvement of multi-Service test capabilities that are critically needed for testing complex and sophisticated advanced weapon, sensor, and command and control (C2) systems. JIM projects must be developmental in nature and must exhibit a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 6 or greater to be considered for funding.

The REP portfolio invests in projects that develop quick-reaction, near-term solutions to operational test capability shortfalls in support of ongoing acquisition programs. The need for these capabilities is generally not sufficiently known in advance of the operational test to be included in the normal Service or Defense Agency programming and budgeting cycle. Funding the development of such capabilities under CTEIP provides the opportunity to coordinate and integrate near-term test requirements with the DoD-wide T&E investment portfolio, and ensures the consideration of other programs having similar test requirements.

TS projects resolve threat and target testing shortfalls to ensure adequate threat/target representations are available for the T&E of U.S. weapon systems. Initiatives funded under the Threat Systems project integrate new technologies, update threat information, and improve target representations in the DoD T&E infrastructure. Items produced under the Threat Systems project include threat models and digital simulations, threat simulator hardware, and threat target active/passive countermeasure systems.M) projects, Resource Enhancement Project (REP) projects, and Threat Systems projects, and threat target active/passive countermeasure systems.