Page 1 GAO-14-287R Overhead Persistent Infrared

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January 13, 2014

Congressional Committees

Space Acquisitions: Assessment of Overhead Persistent Infrared Technology Report

The Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) mission area is supported by organizations within the 

Department of Defense (DOD) and intelligence community (IC) to ensure that missile threats 

are detected and reported to decision makers. The current Space Based Infrared System

(SBIRS) and legacy Defense Support Program (DSP) satellites support the OPIR mission in 

four areas: missile warning, missile defense, technical intelligence, and battlespace awareness.

Over the past several years, DOD, through the Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center 

(SMC), has conducted research and development efforts to improve technologies to better 

address the OPIR mission area. Until recently, for example, the Air Force’s Commercially 

Hosted Infrared Payload (CHIRP) demonstration sensor, employing wide field-of-view staring 

technology, collected OPIR data and provided insight into the applicability of this technology for 

the OPIR mission area.1

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 (NDAA), signed into law on 

January 2, 2013, required, among other things, that the Secretary of Defense, in consultation 

with the Director of National Intelligence, submit a report on OPIR technology to the 

congressional defense committees no later than 180 days after the enactment of the act.

2 The 

report was to identify DOD and IC’s OPIR technology requirements; describe the strategy, plan 

and budget for current and next generation OPIR systems; and identify opportunities for further 

cooperation between the DOD and IC communities. DOD provided this report to the 

congressional defense committees on October 11, 2013. 

Additionally, the act mandated that GAO assess the comprehensiveness of the DOD OPIR 

technology report not later than 90 days after the date on which the Secretary of Defense 

submits DOD’s report. To meet the requirements of the mandate, we assessed the extent to 

which the report (1) was comprehensive, fully supported, and sufficiently detailed; and (2) 

contained limitations that may have affected the quality of the report. Due to the classification 

level of the DOD OPIR report, we are issuing this unclassified report to formally meet the 

mandated reporting requirement; we have offered to brief the defense committees on the 

classified details of our findings. 

To assess the comprehensiveness of the information contained in the DOD OPIR report, we 

reviewed the information contained in the report, we interviewed people who had direct 

involvement in the report, and discussed the report’s findings and methodology with them. We

also reviewed and compared the 1996 SBIRS Operational Requirements Document, the 2002 

SBIRS Operational Requirements Document, and 2010 Initial Capabilities Document for OPIR 

Enterprise to the requirements outlined in the OPIR report for completeness. We reviewed 

related and supporting studies, such as the 2012 Joint OPIR Integrated Space Trade (JOIST) 

 1 Launched on September 21, 2011, the Commercially Hosted Payload was decommissioned on December 6, 2013, 

after about 27 months of operations. 

2 Pub. L. No. 112-239, § 915. 
Page 2 GAO-14-287R Overhead Persistent Infrared

study which was co-led by the Executive Agent for Space and the National GeospatialIntelligence Agency (NGA), the 2010 OPIR Architecture Study – Phase I, and the 2010 Joint 

OPIR Ground (JOG) study. In addition, for the JOIST and JOG study, on which a fair amount of

the OPIR report is based, we discussed the report’s methodology, findings, and data sources 

with the report’s project leader and several study participants.

To identify other important issues with potential bearing on current and future OPIR acquisitions, 

we interviewed DOD, IC, and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency officials involved in OPIR 

matters. We reviewed other relevant government and industry reports to assess the extent to 

which DOD’s report contained limitations that affected the quality of the report. In addition, we 

obtained and examined information related to SBIRS Operational Requirements Document 

updates, OPIR resiliency capabilities, and the latest functional availability report on DSP and 

SBIRS constellations availability to support strategic and theater missile warning. We reviewed 

the 2011 OPIR Space and System Concept Characterization Technical Description which 

describes the trades performed and potential OPIR space architecture concepts for the 2017 to 

2030 time frame, in addition to the 2011 fifteen-year defense space systems investment 

strategy; analyzed historical requirements documents; and interviewed DOD and intelligence 

community officials. In the course of this work, we interviewed DOD officials from the Office of 

the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics; Joint Staff; Cost 

Assessment and Program Evaluation office; Air Force Space Command; Air Force Space and 

Missile Systems Center; Air Force Research Laboratory; Sandia National Laboratories; as well 

as, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency. 

We conducted this performance audit from March 2013 through January 2014 in accordance 

with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan 

and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for 

our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence 

obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our objectives. 

Results

On October 11, 2013, DOD submitted to the congressional defense committees the OPIR 

Technology report. Upon reviewing the report, we determined that the OPIR report was 

comprehensive and appropriately identified its limitations. In particular, DOD, in consultation 

with the IC, provided a description of (1) the plan and budget for current and next generation 

OPIR systems and (2) OPIR technology requirements. The report elaborated on current 

cooperative efforts between the DOD and IC communities and identified potential future 

opportunities for further cooperation. Further details remain classified.

Agency Comments

We obtained oral comments from DOD on the contents of our classified briefing and on the 

contents of this report to congressional committees.

We are sending copies of this report to the appropriate congressional committees, the Secretary 

of Defense, and the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics. 

This report will also be available at no charge on our website at http://www.gao.gov. Should you 

or your staff have questions concerning this report, please contact me at (202) 512-4841 or at 

chaplainc@gao.gov. 
Page 3 GAO-14-287R Overhead Persistent Infrared

Contact points for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on 

the last page of this report. Key contributors to this report were Art Gallegos, Assistant Director;

Maricela Cherveny; Brenna Guarneros; Kenneth Patton; and, Jay Tallon.

Cristina Chaplain, Director

Acquisition and Sourcing Management
Page 4 GAO-14-287R Overhead Persistent Infrared

List of Committees 

The Honorable Carl Levin 

Chairman 

The Honorable James Inhofe 

Ranking Member 

Committee on Armed Services 

United States Senate 

The Honorable Dianne Feinstein

Chairman

The Honorable Saxby Chambliss

Vice Chairman

Select Committee on Intelligence

United States Senate

The Honorable Dick Durbin 

Chairman 

The Honorable Thad Cochran 

Ranking Member 

Subcommittee on Defense 

Committee on Appropriations 

United States Senate 

The Honorable Howard P. “Buck” McKeon 

Chairman 

The Honorable Adam Smith 

Ranking Member 

Committee on Armed Services 

House of Representatives 

The Honorable Mike Rogers

Chairman

The Honorable C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, III

Ranking Member

Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

House of Representatives

The Honorable Rodney Frelinghuysen

Chairman 

The Honorable Pete Visclosky 

Ranking Member 

Subcommittee on Defense 

Committee on Appropriations

House of Representatives

(121117)
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