Consequences of Skipping Certification Programs that bypass early spec- trum work routinely encounter oper- ational blind spots, canceled training events, and schedule slips that stretch into fiscal-year territory. The Army’s Link-16 ground-vehicle rollout stalled after datalinks interfered with Federal Aviation Administration (FFA) naviga- tion beacons, forcing costly redesigns and congressional briefings. Marine aviation units have forfeited entire range blocks when jamming pods lacked legal frequency assignments. A 2024 Government Accountability
Office review noted that late or in- complete spectrum packages add an average of 15 months to a program’s fielding timeline—far costlier than doing the paperwork upfront. Operation Desert Storm is the cautionary tale writ large. Coalition forces inundated the Kuwaiti theater with GPS receivers, high-power sat- ellite communication terminals, and airborne jammers—systems whose frequency claims had never gone through NTIA. When thousands of emitters lit up at once, critical links experienced harmful interference that affected everything from close-
air-support circuits to medical evac- uation beacons. Engineers in Saudi Arabia spent frantic weeks rewriting frequency plans while ammunition convoys idled. That scramble directly inspired today’s Joint Spectrum In- terference Resolution program and proved a timeless truth: Operational urgency cannot override physics or policy. Where Spectrum Fits In The Adaptive Acquisition Frame- work spells out exactly when spec- trum work belongs. During Materiel Solution Analysis, a program drafts its
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