Military Prepositioning: Army and Air Force Programs Need to Be Reassessed
Abstract
The U.S. military stores, or prepositions, reserves of military equipment and supplies near potential conflict areas to ensure that the material would be quickly available to forces in the event of a crisis. During a crisis, prepositioning would speed U.S. response times because only the troops and a relatively small amount of materiel would need to be brought by air to the conflict area. As a result, the Department of Defense (DOD) could field heavily equipped, combat-ready forces in days rather than the weeks it would take if the forces and all necessary equipment and supplies had to be brought from the United States. Collectively, the services spent over $1 billion in fiscal year 1997 to operate and maintain their prepositioning programs. The Chairman, Subcommittee on Readiness, Committee on Armed Services, U. S. Senate, asked GAO to assess the readiness of prepositioning programs. Specifically, GAO examined (1) the basis for program requirements and (2) the rates of inventory fill and maintenance condition of prepositioned stocks and the reliability of this readiness data. GAO focused its review on the Army and the Air Force programs because of concerns that emerged about the sufficiency, condition, and management of their prepositioned stocks.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1998
- Accession Number
- AD1183551
Entities
People
- Carol R. Schuster
- Maewanda M. Jackson
- Mark E. Gebicke
- Michael J. Ferren
- Reginald L. Furr
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office