Defense Infrastructure: Navy's Analysis of Costs and Benefits Regarding Naval Station Mayport Demonstrated Some Best Practices and Minimally Addressed Other Requirements

What GAO Found

The Navy's analysis of the costs and benefits of stationing additional DDG-51 class destroyers at Naval Station Mayport, Florida, demonstrated some applicable best practices for analyzing costs and benefits. GAO identified eight applicable best practices and applied them to the Navy's discussion of the costs and benefits of stationing DDG-51 class destroyers at Naval Station Mayport. GAO found that the Navy demonstrated the best practices of clearly defining a problem statement and objectives, and including key facts and assumptions. The Navy partially demonstrated the best practices of estimating costs and benefits, and identifying and discussing uncertainty. However, the Navy's analysis did not demonstrate the best practice of describing alternatives, and therefore, it did not compare alternatives or contain recommendations about them.

Navy's analysis minimally addressed other requirements, and it did not provide some information that would have been useful for oversight and decision making.

Why GAO Did This Study

Over the next couple of years, maintenance work available to the ship repair industrial base supporting Naval Station Mayport is expected to decrease. Section 1017 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 required the Navy to analyze the costs and benefits of stationing additional DDG-51 class destroyers at Naval Station Mayport and to include other considerations. It also required GAO to provide an assessment of the Navy's analysis. The Navy provided its analysis in a report submitted to Congress on December 31, 2012.

GAO's objectives were to describe the extent to which the Navy's analysis (1) demonstrated the use of applicable best practices for an analysis of costs and benefits and (2) provided information on other considerations, as required by Section 1017. In conducting our assessment, GAO identified applicable best practices for analyzing costs and benefits and discussed the Navy's documentation and methodology with knowledgeable officials. GAO also reviewed the information in the Navy's analysis, interviewed Navy and private ship repair firm officials, and visited Naval Station Mayport.

GAO is not making recommendations in this report. DOD and the Department of the Navy reviewed a draft of this report and did not have formal comments. The Navy provided technical comments that were incorporated as appropriate in the report.

For more information, contact Brian Lepore at (202) 512-4523 or leporeb@gao.gov.