NATO Air Defenses: Higher Funding Priorities Delay Some Initiatives for U.S. Bases in Europe
Abstract
According to U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) officials, collocated operating bases are essential to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO's) warfighting effort, since over 60 percent of all U.S. aircraft scheduled to deploy to Europe would deploy to those bases. The clear need for an ABO program was established by the "Salty Demo" exercise, which was conducted in 1985 to demonstrate the Air Force's capability to generate aircraft sorties from air bases that are attacked. The goal of the ABO program is to provide base commanders with the capability to destroy attacking enemy air and ground forces, limit damage to airbases, and survive, recover, and continue to operate while under attack or post-attack conditions. We found that USAFE has programs that have begun to identify and, to a lesser extent, correct ABO problems at both its main and collocated operating bases. However, the effectiveness of the programs is questionable due to the reallocation of funds from the ABO program to other, higher priority USAFE programs.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1988
- Accession Number
- AD1176079
Entities
People
- Harry R. Finley
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office