Military Prepositioning Observations on Army and Marine Corps Programs During Operation Iraqi Freedom and Beyond
Abstract
Since the Cold War, the Department of Defense (DOD) has increased its reliance on prepositioned stocks of military equipment and supplies, primarily because it can no longer plan on having a large forward troop presence. Prepositioned stocks are stored on ships and on land in the Persian Gulf and other regions around the world. Preposition in gallows the military to respond rapidly to conflicts. Ideally, units need only to bring troops and a small amount of materiel to the conflict area. Once there, troops can draw on prepositioned equipment and supplies, and then move quickly into combat. Today's testimony describes (1) the performance and availability of Army and Marine Corps prepositioned equipment and supplies to support Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF); (2) current status of the stocks and plans to reconstitute them; and (3) key issues facing the military as it reshapes these programs to support DOD's force transformation efforts. GAO's observations are based on ongoing work as well as previous reports on equipment accountability, supply distribution, and other logistics issues during OIF, plus other past work on spare parts shortages and on the readiness of prepositioning programs.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 24, 2004
- Accession Number
- AD1176116
Entities
People
- John Pendleton
- Julia Denman
- Nancy Benco
- Robert Malpass
- Tanisha Stewart
- Tinh Nguyen
- William M. Solis
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office