Defense Logistics: Changes to Stryker Vehicle Maintenance Support Should Identify Strategies for Addressing Implementation Challenges

As part of the Army's ongoing transformation efforts, in October 1999 the Army announced the Stryker brigade concept. The Stryker brigade is a unit designed to provide the Army with a rapidly deployable force that is capable of operating against the full spectrum of military threats. To meet the Army's requirements for being rapidly deployable and combat capable, the Stryker brigade relies on new sustainment concepts, such as minimizing the number of personnel and spare parts within the brigade and reaching back to assets outside the brigade for support, which are not found in other existing Army brigades. In a span of 6 years, the Army announced its intention to create a new brigade, chose a vehicle, tested the operational concept, and deployed three brigades in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Army is also sending one Stryker brigade for a second rotation to Iraq and is developing four additional Stryker brigades. To support the accelerated development and deployment timeline, the Army relied on contractors to support some equipment within the Stryker brigade, such as the Stryker vehicle and computer and communication systems. The largest group of contractor support within the brigade focuses on the Stryker vehicle, and the duties of those contractor personnel include conducting maintenance on the Stryker vehicle and managing the Stryker-specific supply chain. An Army official from the office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology stated that at the time the first brigade deployed, the Army did not have the institutional capacity to train soldiers on conducting Stryker vehicle maintenance, and it faced an immediate need for maintenance personnel to support the deployment. This official also stated that the Army has since developed the institutional capacity to train soldiers to conduct Stryker vehicle maintenance. On November 1, 2005, the Army directed changes to Stryker vehicle support. One of these planned changes is to replace the Stryker vehicle maintenance contractor personnel within the brigade with soldiers. Army officials stated that the Army's general preference is to use soldiers instead of contractor personnel, and the specific rationale for making this change is to increase the flexibility of the Stryker brigade to perform in different combat missions. The Army expects to begin implementing this change by fiscal year 2008. We initiated this work under the statutory authority of the Comptroller General to conduct evaluations on his own initiative and are providing this report to Congress because of its' committees' oversight responsibility. We reviewed issues related to implementing the Army's planned change to use soldiers, rather than contractors, to conduct maintenance on the Stryker vehicle and specifically assessed the extent to which the Army's planned change will achieve the desired outcome when implemented.