United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office National Security and International Affairs Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2000-04-27 monographic deposited born digital 33 p. GA 1.13:NSIAD-00-126 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-126 P0b002ee18039b7a5 f:ns00126 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-126 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-126 NSIAD-00-126 Military aircraft Defense contingency planning Logistics Military airlift operations Combat readiness Letter Report NSIAD Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Defense's (DOD) operational support airlift aircraft requirement, focusing on: (1) whether the existing requirement for operational support airlift aircraft is linked to wartime needs; and (2) the process DOD used to determine its requirements for these aircraft.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) the process used to determine requirements for operational support airlift is inadequate because it is not clearly linked to wartime requirements as DOD policy requires; (2) in GAO's review of the process DOD used for the 1995, 1998, and ongoing analyses of operational support airlift requirements, GAO identified several weaknesses that call the requirement for 391 aircraft into question; (3) specifically, DOD has not clearly explained the basis for the key assumptions it is using to justify the requirements or identified the assumptions that should be updated in each succeeding review; (4) for example, DOD has assumed that most overseas airfields should be connected to each other by nonstop flights three times a day; (5) however, DOD has not explained why it is necessary to connect these airfields with such frequency to support wartime requirements; (6) in addition, DOD has not issued sufficient guidance to define participant roles and responsibilities for validating these airlift requirements; (7) for example, GAO was unable to determine whether any command had validated the requirement for 85 aircraft that were based within the continental United States during DOD's 1998 review of support aircraft requirements; (8) DOD has also failed to ensure that sufficient documentation to support previous analyses is maintained; (9) moreover, DOD has only reviewed its requirements for operational support aircraft twice since 1995, despite its own directive to validate the requirements on an annual basis; and (10) officials involved in the review process, however, suggested to GAO that annual reviews may be too frequent, given that they would not expect the requirements to change significantly from year to year. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-126/html/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-126.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-126/pdf/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-126.pdf GAO/NSIAD-00-126 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-126 Letter Report GAO/NSIAD-00-126; Defense Transportation: Operational Support Airlift; Military aircraft Defense contingency planning Logistics Military airlift operations Combat readiness