Industrial Base: Significance of DOD's Foreign Dependence
NSIAD-91-93
Published: Jan 10, 1991. Publicly Released: Feb 15, 1991.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) dependency on foreign sources for critical components of its weapon systems, focusing on the M1 Abrams tank and the F/A-18 Hornet fighter aircraft.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense | The Secretary of Defense should assign responsibility to an individual or group within the Office of the Secretary of Defense for identifying, reviewing, evaluating, prioritizing, and, when decisions have been made, to take action, following up on timely implementation of the recommendations of major reports and studies on the defense industrial base to better enable DOD to take advantage of potentially valuable ideas. |
DOD noted that these responsibilities are part of the mission of the recently established Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Production Resources, including, among others, industrial preparedness planning, industrial resources, and production readiness. Industrial base studies and reports will be referred to this office for action or review.
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| Department of Defense | The Secretary of Defense should, after consulting with other agencies and private-sector experts and considering existing studies regarding critical technologies, critical and strategic industries, and foreign dependencies, determine the key issues and policy questions for which information is needed. |
DOD cited a number of activities under way to determine key issues and policy questions regarding the industrial base. DOD actions have not fulfilled the recommendation. However, statutory amendments (title XLII, ch. 148, 1993 National Defense Authorization At) have partially fulfilled the recommendation by requiring DOD to periodically assess several key issues.
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| Department of Defense | The Secretary of Defense should, after consulting with other agencies and private-sector experts and considering existing studies regarding critical technologies, critical and strategic industries, and foreign dependencies, develop a plan for a viable management information system to provide visibility on foreign dependencies for weapon system components throughout the lower production tiers. |
DOD has serious reservations regarding the development of a database and data collection system on the foreign content of "every DOD weapon system end item, component, and piece part". However, DOD misconstrued the recommendation, which only applied to critical items. Moreover, DOD is developing the recommended response per statutory requirements.
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| Department of Defense | The Secretary of Defense should, after consulting with other agencies and private-sector experts and considering existing studies regarding critical technologies, critical and strategic industries, and foreign dependencies, submit, within a reasonable time, a program proposal to Congress for effectively addressing the key issues and policy questions. |
In 1991, DOD responded that the recommended actions would not provide benefits commensurate with the costs involved. Notwithstanding the DOD position, Congress approved section 831(a) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 1992 and 1993 requiring DOD to submit by March 15, 1992, a plan for collecting and assessing defense industrial base information.
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Topics
Data collectionDefense industryForeign military sales agreementsImportingIndustrial mobilizationInternational tradeManagement information systemsStrategic materialsWeapons industryProcurement