Contingency Operations: Providing Critical Capabilities Poses Challenges
NSIAD-00-164
Published: Jul 06, 2000. Publicly Released: Jul 24, 2000.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined the services' ability to continuously meet the challenges posed by contingency operations, focusing on six military assets that have been heavily used in contingency operations in a series of case studies.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected Sort descending | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense | To alleviate some of the strain on the military forces and assets used in contingency operations, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Navy reexamine the Navy's policy of limiting the use of non-deployed carrier-based EA-6B aircraft to less than 90-day land missions in contingencies. Specifically, the Navy should consider the feasibility of expanding the use of squadrons for full 90-day land missions when their associated carriers are undergoing extended maintenance. |
Closed – Not Implemented
DOD continues to believe that no change is warranted.
|
| Department of Defense | The Secretary of Defense should reexamine using AWACS crews from the Pacific to cover worldwide missions within the context of the Global Military Force Policy. |
Closed – Not Implemented
DOD continues to believe that no change is warranted.
|
| Department of Defense | To alleviate some of the strain on the military forces and assets used in contingency operations, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Army to carefully scrutinize the actions taken to ready the 49th Armored Division to deploy to Bosnia before deciding whether to expand the use of the National Guard forces to cover the mission in Kosovo. In making this assessment, the Secretary should consider the transfer of specialized personnel, equipment, training, and other resources that were necessary and whether the same level of support can be provided to cover both Bosnia and Kosovo missions. |
Closed – Implemented
DOD agrees that lessons learned during deployments should be studied by units preparing to deploy to contingency operations. Lessons learned will be used to assist other Army National Guard and active duty units preparing to deploy to Bosnia. At this time there are no plans to deploy Army National Guard units to Kosovo.
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Topics
Armed forces abroadMilitary personnel deploymentCombat readinessContingency operationsDefense capabilitiesDefense contingency planningMilitary aircraftMilitary trainingMobilizationStaff utilization