Military Readiness: Current Indicators Need to Be Expanded for a More
Comprehensive Assessment (Testimony, 04/21/94, GAO/T-NSIAD-94-160).

In a period of downsizing and shrinking budgets, maintaining forces that
are highly trained and ready to fight is a formidable challenge.
Concerns have been raised about the potential for the U.S. military to
be reduced to the "hollow forces" that prevailed during the 1970s.  GAO
testified that the Pentagon's system for measuring readiness yields
valuable data, but it is not comprehensive and cannot signal an
impending change in readiness. The military commands are monitoring many
additional indicators to supplement data now being reported, and GAO is
examining these indicators to see whether a consensus exists on which
indicators are most important and have predictive value.  A future
readiness system should factor in jointness, have predictive capability,
facilitate trend analyses, and provide more objective and candid
assessments.  The military commands have expressed concerns about the
status of current and future readiness, but it is not feasible for GAO
to present a bottom line given the absence of consensus on readiness
indicators and how they should be viewed collectively.

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

 REPORTNUM:  T-NSIAD-94-160
     TITLE:  Military Readiness: Current Indicators Need to Be Expanded 
             for a More Comprehensive Assessment
      DATE:  04/21/94
   SUBJECT:  Defense contingency planning
             Mobilization
             Strategic mobility forces
             Reductions in force
             Military training
             Military personnel
             Defense capabilities
             Warfare
             Combat readiness
             Defense operations
IDENTIFIER:  JCS Status of Resources and Training System
             Persian Gulf War
             Desert Shield
             Army Status Projection System
             Iraq
             Bosnia
             Somalia
             
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