The document outlines the National Reconnaissance Office's (NRO) efforts to establish an enterprise-wide mission assurance audits capability to promote supply chain knowledge and reduce failures. It discusses collaborating with other government space agencies through initiatives like joint audits and an integrated audit schedule. The goal is to leverage best practices, improve procedures, and enhance collaboration to help ensure NRO mission success.

1. Mission Assurance Audits Evolution – Ensuring NRO Mission Success Mr. Dean Baker NRO/SED/MSE Chief, Mission Assurance Audits February 2012

2. NRO Enterprise Mission Assurance Audits NRO Objective U.S. Government Oversight Authorities 3-phased approach to establish an NRO MA audits capability Research Collaboration Implementation Current and planned implementation activities

3. Objective Develop an NRO enterprise-wide mission assurance supplier assessment and surveillance management capability for the NRO program offices to promote improvement in supply chain knowledge and management for reducing escapements, failures and anomalies.

4. (U) White House Memorandum President Obama Moreover, it is essential that the Federal Government have the capacity to carry out robust and thorough management and oversight of its contracts in order to achieve programmatic goals… Improved contract oversight could reduce such sums significantly. Contractor oversight is imperative

5. (U) Blue Ribbon Commission President Reagan Recommended minimizing duplication of effort and data sharing associated with audits Department of Defense Auditing and Oversight Oversight of defense contractors must be better coordinated among DoD agencies and Congress. Guidelines must be developed to remove undesirable duplication of official effort and, when appropriate, to encourage sharing of contractor data by audit agencies. The new Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition) should establish appropriate overall contract audit policy.

6. (U) Code of Federal Regulations Commerce and Foreign Trade Federal Law mandates coordination, participation and conduct of joint audits Federal agencies should: Coordinate its conformity assessment activities with those of other appropriate Government agencies and with those of the private sector to reduce unnecessary duplication (Sec 287.1(a)) Participate in efforts designed to improve coordination among governmental and private sector assessment activities (Sec 287.4(g)) Conduct joint supplier audits and share conformity assessment information among agencies (Sec 287.4(h)) Use the results of private sector or other governmental conformity assessment activities to schedule audits more effectively (allowing agencies to reduce the number and extent of audits conducted at companies which are performing in accordance with contract specifications and which are under review by a third party or another agency and to concentrate agency audit efforts on companies which have shown problems in conforming to contract specifications (Sec 287.4(e))

7. (U) Federal Acquisition Regulation Government authorized to conduct inspections Agencies shall ensure that- (a) Contracts include inspection and other quality requirements, including warranty clauses when appropriate, that are determined necessary to protect the Government's interest; (d) No contract precludes the Government from performing inspection ; . . .

8. (U) Interagency Cooperation for Mission Assurance MOU 3. Scope . This MOU and attached Mission Assurance Strategic Intent provide to SMC, NRO, MDA, and NASA the context and framework for collaboration efforts to work across a common industrial base to achieve mission success. 4. Roles and Responsibilities . Each organization will apply best effort to: a. Develop and share best practices. b. Share lessons learned. c. Consider health of the industrial base in space systems acquisitions. d. Participate in mission assurance fora Signatories NRO: Director Carlson signed 09/20/10 SMC: Lt Gen Sheridan signed 09/01/10 MDA: LTG O’Reilly signed 12/01/10 NASA: Mr. Bolden signed 02/02/11 NRO Audit Capability founded on this MOU

9. (U) Mission Assurance Strategic Intent MOU Attachment

10. (U) Mission Assurance Instruction (CBPI 130-9) MA Audits mandated in NRO CBPI 130-9 MA audits are conducted after the program is on contract. MSE/MA provides auditors in coordination and in support of POs. They can be used by POs to ensure compliance and assess the effectiveness of a contractor’s overall internal policies, procedures, processes, organization, and personnel to assure that the product/service meets contractual requirements.

11. (U) MDA Quality, Safety and MA Audit Program SOP NRO Audit participation referenced in MDA’s SOP 6.10 Other Designated Government Activities and Support Contractors Designated representatives from other government activities (i.e., National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), AMRDEC, etc) and MDA/QS support contractors are responsible for: Providing audit personnel to perform MDA/QS audits, including CAAs, upon request Responding to other requests in support of the MDA/QS audit program

12. “ Research” Research Space Community Audits – Resources, Procedures, Best Practices, and Lessons Learned

13. NRO MA Audit Perspective Current NRO Mission Assurance Audit capability Primarily reliant upon prime contractors to conduct audits Program-specific ad hoc audits conducted/observed by program office Limited interaction with rest of audit community Schedule sharing Periodic observation of DLA audits Inefficient and limited data sharing throughout enterprise Minimal enterprise-wide MA Audit capability

14. “ Collaborate” Space Community Best Practices and Lessons Learned – Joint Audit Collaboration Initiative

15. Collaboration Across the Community Space Community Defense Auditing PM Challenge Supply Chain Mgmt Forum JAPC QLF ORG ORG ORG 3 rd Party COMM SIGINT IMINT GED NRO AS&T SED MSE OCE JMAC SQIC MA Summit SIBC Outreach Integrated Audit Schedule & Data Joint Audits Training Data Analysis NRO Audit Elements ORG ORG ORG

16. “ Implementation” Resources, Procedures, Tools, Templates, Checklists, Standards

17. NRO Audit Elements Maintain NRO Integrated Audit Schedule Outreach to Space Community schedule forums (e.g. NEPAG and JAPC) Maintain NRO Joint Audit Schedule NRO audit awareness training Audit certification training Risk awareness training Audit video(s) Space Community training events and scheduling Document, maintain & coordinate NRO Supply Chain Map Outreach to Industrial Base forums Participate in joint audits Plan & execute NRO-led joint audits Plan & execute NRO audits Corrective action follow up Review NRO Audits process annually Coordinate partner Audit Letters of Intent Maintain Audits “Rolodex” Outreach to enterprise Maintain NRO audit official records Conduct audit Results Review and Analysis (RRA) Communicate audits RRA Monitor “key” risk follow up Outreach Integrated Audit Schedule & Data Joint Audits Training Supply Chain Map Data Analysis NRO Audit Elements

18. NRO MA Audit Tools Existing and proven tools selected to promote Space Community collaboration and data sharing Virtual Supplier Assessment & Analysis Modules

19. (U) VSAAM Capabilities

20. Integrated Audit Schedule Process Past Contractor List Contractor List. Obtain audit report(s) Analyze and discern key risks Communicate risks Follow up Future Participate in joint audit Attend last day of audit Observe audit Obtain report(s) Conduct NRO audit Provide situational and risk awareness to NRO Program Offices Filter Options Post-Audit Actions ORG Community Audit Schedules Audits of NRO Enterprise Interest ORG ORG ORG ORG ORG 3 rd Party

21. Closing NRO enterprise mission assurance audits capability maturing: Leverage audit best practices and lessons learned Participate in Space Community collaboration forums Establish new audit finding sharing partners Improve audit procedures, processes, and tools Educate audit personnel to improve expertise and experience Industrial Base Audits Evolution Space Community Common Understanding NRO Mission Success Imperative Cost Savings Initiative Collaborative Journey

23. Space Community Commitment to Mission Assurance Cooperation

24. UNCLASSIFIED