Military Operations and Capabilities Issue Area Plan--Fiscal Years
1995-98 (Letter Report, 04/01/97, GAO/IAP-97-2).

GAO provided information on its Military Operations and Capabilities
issue area plan for fiscal years 1995-98.

GAO plans to assess the: (1) accuracy of budget estimates for the
Department of Defense's (DOD) operation and maintenance account and the
potential for greater savings and efficiencies; (2) capability of
military forces, weapons, and support systems to carry out their
expected roles in the National Military Strategy and their performance
in actual operations; (3) readiness and sustainability of military
forces to perform their assigned missions and the potential to enhance
or sustain readiness at less cost; and (4) effectiveness of DOD's
efforts to recruit and retain a quality force, and maintain needed
quality of life programs.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  IAP-97-2
     TITLE:  Military Operations and Capabilities Issue Area 
             Plan--Fiscal Years 1995-98
      DATE:  04/01/97
   SUBJECT:  Combat readiness
             Military operations
             Defense contingency planning
             Defense capabilities
             Defense cost control
             Mission budgeting
             Military recruiting
             Defense budgets
             Military forces
IDENTIFIER:  JCS National Military Strategy
             
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Cover
================================================================ COVER


National Security and International Affairs Division

April 1997

MILITARY OPERATIONS AND
CAPABILITIES ISSUE AREA PLAN -
FISCAL YEARS 1995-98

GAO/IAP-97-2



Abbreviations
=============================================================== ABBREV

  DOD - Department of Defense
  O&M - operation and maintenance

FOREWORD
============================================================ Chapter 0

As the investigative arm of Congress and the nation's auditor, the
General Accounting Office is charged with following the federal
dollar wherever it goes.  Reflecting stringent standards of
objectivity and independence, GAO's audits, evaluations, and
investigations promote a more efficient and cost-effective
government; expose waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in federal
programs; help Congress target budget reductions; assess financial
information management; and alert Congress to developing trends that
may have significant fiscal or budgetary consequences.  In fulfilling
its responsibilities, GAO performs original research and uses
hundreds of databases or creates its own when information is
unavailable elsewhere. 

To ensure that GAO's resources are directed toward the most important
issues facing Congress, each of GAO's 32 issue areas develops a
strategic plan that describes the significance of the issues it
addresses, its objectives, and the focus of its work.  Each issue
area relies heavily on input from congressional committees, agency
officials, and subject-matter experts in developing its strategic
plan. 

The Military Operations and Capabilities issue area covers programs
of the Department of Defense, the individual military services, and
other supporting defense agencies.  GAO's work in this issue area
includes assessments of military planning activities; the Department
of Defense's (DOD) budgeting for operation and maintenance (O&M); the
capability, performance, readiness, and sustainability of military
forces, weapons, and support systems; and initiatives aimed at
maintaining a quality force.  The principal issues covered are

  the accuracy of budget estimates for DOD's O&M account and the
     potential for greater savings and efficiencies;

  the capability of military forces, weapons, and support systems to
     carry out their expected roles in the National Military Strategy
     and their performance in actual operations;

  the readiness and sustainability of military forces to perform
     their assigned missions and the potential to enhance or sustain
     readiness at less cost; and

  the effectiveness of DOD's efforts to recruit and retain a quality
     force, and maintain needed quality of life programs.

     In the pages that follow, we describe our key planned work on
     these critical defense issues. 

Because events may significantly affect even the best of plans and
because periodic measurement of success against any plan is
essential, our planning process allows for updating and the
flexibility to respond quickly to emerging issues.  If you have any
questions or suggestions about this plan, please call me at (202)
512-5140. 

Mark E.  Gebicke
Director, Military Operations
 and Capabilities Issues


CONTENTS
============================================================ Chapter 1


   FOREWORD
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:1

1


   TABLE I:  KEY ISSUES
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:2

4


   TABLE II:  PLANNED MAJOR WORK
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:3

6


   TABLE III:  GAO CONTACTS
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:4

7


TABLE I:  KEY ISSUES
============================================================ Chapter 2

Issue                                    Significance                                      Objectives                                        Focus of Work
---------------------------------------  ------------------------------------------------  ------------------------------------------------  ---------------------------------------
Planning and budgeting:                  Members of Congress have had dual concerns that    Examine adequacy of justifications associated    Critical reviews of DOD's annual O&M
Have DOD and the military services       DOD has overbudgeted for some items while         with DOD's O&M budget requests with an emphasis   budget requests to identify potential
prepared accurate O&M budgets, and are   underbudgeting for others. The latter concern is  on identifying requests that are greater than     savings.
there opportunities to reduce these      apt to take on even greater significance as       documented requirements.
costs?                                   budget pressures continue and pressures build to
                                         devote a greater portion of defense resources to   Target selected budget/program items for in-     More detailed reviews of selected DOD
                                         modernization. At the same time, both Congress    depth evaluation to better identify the           O&M programs to identify potential
                                         and the administration are eager to identify      potential for reductions.                         reductions.
                                         opportunities to reduce O&M costs. Our
                                         identification of potential reductions can         Examine outsourcing/privatization and other      Critical reviews of outsourcing/
                                         interject greater accountability into the         options for meeting base operations and           privatization initiatives and case
                                         budgeting process and permit reallocation of      facilities infrastructure needs at less cost.     studies to identify industry best
                                         funds where needed.                                                                                 practices applicable to government.

Capabilities and performance:            Successful military operations are predicated on   Alert Congress and DOD to limitations and        Reviews to assess whether imbalances
Has DOD fielded capable forces, weapon   the presumption that critical functional force    imbalances in selected operational capabilities.  exist in ways, means, and ends of
systems, and support elements, and are   elements and weapon systems can achieve their                                                       selected capability areas in
they performing as expected?             mission. Our assessments will identify critical    Evaluate the adequacy of DOD actions taken to   relationship to requirements. Also,
                                         shortfalls that could jeopardize operations as    properly size forces according to their           reviews of the adequacy of actions
                                         well as excess capabilities that might be         anticipated missions.                             taken to correct shortfalls and
                                         eliminated and thereby assist future decisions                                                      eliminate excesses in various
                                         on force structure, training, and capital                                                           capability areas.
                                         investments. Examining performance in exercises    Identify performance shortfalls that could
                                         and actual operations provides the best           undermine success in future operations.            Assessments of the performance of
                                         indicator of capability.                                                                            selected functional capabilities in
                                                                                                                                             recent operations.

Readiness and sustainability:            Congress wants to avoid a return to a "hollow"     Provide Congress with data important to          Aggregation, retention, and analysis
Are U.S. military forces ready to        force, unprepared to fight the nation's wars.     tracking trends in readiness and identifying      of readiness indicator data developed
effectively carry out their assigned     Readiness problems, however, may, in fact,        reasons for any variances. Also, determine        by the services and reported to the
missions, can supporting systems         reflect poor resource allocation decisions, or    whether readiness indicators used by DOD and the  Office of the Secretary of Defense.
sustain them, and can readiness be       failure to recognize more cost-effective          services provide a reliable and comprehensive
sustained or enhanced at less cost?      opportunities to sustain or even enhance          assessment of readiness.
                                         training. Better management of defense resources                                                     Reviews to determine effectiveness of
                                         may be the key to ensuring needed readiness in a   Identify ways to maintain readiness at lower    training and exercises in preparing
                                         constrained resource environment.                 cost.                                             forces for combat, and identify
                                                                                                                                             opportunities to accomplish this at a
                                                                                                                                             lower cost.

                                                                                                                                              Reviews of sustainment functions to
                                                                                            Assess whether maintenance, supply, and other   identify excesses that divert funds
                                                                                           support systems effectively and efficiently       from more productive uses and shortages
                                                                                           ensure readiness.                                 that hamper readiness.

Quality of the force:                    A smaller military must emphasize quality,         Assess DOD's efforts to provide the necessary    Assessments of DOD and service force
Do DOD and the military services have    continuity, and high morale. Sound recruiting     incentives to recruit and retain a quality        management issues such as recruiting,
effective programs to recruit and        efforts, meaningful training, career development  force.                                            attrition, and grade structure.
retain a quality force, and maintain     opportunities, and effective quality-of-life
needed quality-of-life programs?         programs are essential if DOD is to retain a                                                         Assessments of the force balance
                                         quality force.                                     Determine if DOD's drawdown is achieving a      occurring through various downsizing
                                                                                           balanced active, reserve, and civilian            actions (military and civilian).
                                                                                           workforce.
                                                                                                                                              Evaluations of quality-of-life
                                                                                                                                             initiatives such as enlisted and family
                                                                                            Assess the efficacy of ongoing quality-of-      housing, and other family support
                                                                                           life initiatives.                                 programs.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TABLE II:  PLANNED MAJOR WORK
============================================================ Chapter 3

Issue               Planned Major Job Starts
------------------  --------------------------------------------------
Planning and        Evaluation of DOD's fiscal year 1998 O&M budget
budgeting           request
                    Lessons learned from large-scale base support
                    contracting
                    Reducing O&M in family housing
                    Reserve component planning and budgeting for
                    infrastructure



Capabilities and    DOD's role in antiterrorism
performance         DOD's critical battlefield information systems
                    DOD's determination of future medical personnel
                    requirements
                    Bosnia lessons learned
                    Conflicts/impediments to increased jointness



Readiness and       Review of safety principles used in dangerous
sustainability      military training
                    Potential savings from increased use of
                    simulation training
                    Impact of the Army's battlefield digitization
                    effort
                    Best practices in applying distance learning to
                    training
                    Update on comprehensive system to measure
                    readiness
                    Follow-up on ammunition management in the United
                    States



Quality of the      Improvements in DOD's joint manpower process
force               Enlisted force grade structure increases
                    First-term attrition
                    Military recruiters' quota systems
                    DOD's unaccompanied housing program


----------------------------------------------------------------------

TABLE III:  GAO CONTACTS
============================================================ Chapter 4


      DIRECTOR
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.1

Mark E.  Gebicke (202) 512-5140


      ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.2

Sharon A.  Cekala (202) 512-5140


      ASSISTANT DIRECTORS
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.3

Edward M.  Balderson
William E.  Beusse
Brenda S.  Farrell
Barry W.  Holman
Reginald L.  Furr, Jr.
Valeria G.  Gist
William C.  Meredith
Donald L.  Patton
Elliott C.  Smith
William M.  Solis


*** End of document. ***