Military Transformation: Actions Needed by DOD to More Clearly Identify New Triad Spending and Develop a Long-term Investment Approach
GAO-05-962R
Published: Aug 04, 2005. Publicly Released: Aug 04, 2005.
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Highlights
In response to a Congressional request, we issued a report in June 2005 on the Department of Defense's (DOD) progress in determining and allocating resources needed to implement the New Triad today and in the future. In that report, we made recommendations to the Secretary of Defense to provide greater visibility of the projected spending and future investments for DOD's efforts to create the New Triad and acquire future capabilities. On April 28, 2005, we provided DOD with a draft of that report for review and comment. DOD did not provide comments in time to incorporate them in that report, which went to printing on June 24, 2005. DOD provided its comments to us on June 30, 2005. To present DOD's comments and provide our perspective on them, this report briefly summarizes our June 2005 report's objectives, results, and recommendations, along with DOD's comments and our evaluation of the comments.
Recommendations
Matter for Congressional Consideration
| Matter | Status | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| On the basis of DOD's comments on our recommendations regarding actions for DOD to take to provide greater visibility of projected New Triad spending in the FYDP, as discussed above, Congress may wish to consider requiring the Secretary of Defense to develop and obtain approval of a comprehensive list of program elements in the FYDP, which support activities for developing, acquiring, and sustaining New Triad capabilities. | In May 2005, the House Armed Services Committee included language in its report accompanying its markup of the 2006 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 1815) requiring DOD, commencing with the FY 2007 budget, to modify the FYDP budget submission to establish a virtual major force program for the New Triad that identifies and aggregates relevant program elements associated with the activities and capabilities identified for the New Triad. This action is consistent with our matter for congressional consideration, and was credited to GAO -- see accomplishment report GAO-06-999A. However, the House Armed Services Committee action occurred before our correspondence, GAO-05-736R, was published in August 2005. More recently, our review of the House and Senate Armed Services Committee actions on the FY2007, FY2008, and FY2009 National Defense Authorization Acts did not identify any actions to implement this matter for congressional consideration. | |
| On the basis of DOD's comments on our recommendations regarding actions for DOD to take to provide greater visibility of projected New Triad spending in the FYDP, as discussed above, Congress may wish to consider requiring the Secretary of Defense to modify the FYDP to establish a virtual major force program for the New Triad by creating new data fields that would clearly identify and allow aggregation of New Triad-related program elements to provide increased visibility of the resources allocated for New Triad activities. | In May 2005, the House Armed Services Committee included language in its report accompanying its markup of the 2006 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 1815) requiring DOD, commencing with the FY 2007 budget, to modify the FYDP budget submission to establish a virtual major force program for the New Triad that identifies and aggregates relevant program elements associated with the activities and capabilities identified for the New Triad. This action is consistent with our matter for congressional consideration, and was credited to GAO -- see accomplishment report GAO-06-999A. However, the House Armed Services Committee action occurred before our correspondence, GAO-05-736R, was published in August 2005. More recently, our review of the House and Senate Armed Services Committee actions on the FY2007, FY2008, and FY2009 National Defense Authorization Acts did not identify any actions to implement this matter for congressional consideration. | |
| On the basis of DOD's comments on our recommendations regarding actions for DOD to take to provide greater visibility of projected New Triad spending in the FYDP, as discussed above, Congress may wish to consider requiring the Secretary of Defense to report each year the funding levels for New Triad activities and capabilities in the department's summary FYDP report to Congress. | In May 2005, the House Armed Services Committee included language in its report accompanying its markup of the 2006 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 1815) requiring DOD, commencing with the FY 2007 budget, to modify the FYDP budget submission to establish a virtual major force program for the New Triad that identifies and aggregates relevant program elements associated with the activities and capabilities identified for the New Triad. This action is consistent with our matter for congressional consideration, and was credited to GAO -- see accomplishment report GAO-06-999A. However, the House Armed Services Committee action occurred before our correspondence, GAO-05-736R, was published in August 2005. More recently, our review of the House and Senate Armed Services Committee actions on the FY2007, FY2008, and FY2009 National Defense Authorization Acts did not identify any actions to implement this matter for congressional consideration. | |
| Congress may wish to consider requiring DOD to complete these actions at or about the time when the President's budget for fiscal year 2007 is submitted to Congress. | In May 2005, the House Armed Services Committee included language in its report accompanying its markup of the 2006 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 1815) requiring DOD, commencing with the FY 2007 budget, to modify the FYDP budget submission to establish a virtual major force program for the New Triad that identifies and aggregates relevant program elements associated with the activities and capabilities identified for the New Triad. This action is consistent with our matter for congressional consideration, and was credited to GAO -- see accomplishment report GAO-06-999A. However, the House Armed Services Committee action occurred before our correspondence, GAO-05-736R, was published in August 2005. More recently, our review of the House and Senate Armed Services Committee actions on the FY2007, FY2008, and FY2009 National Defense Authorization Acts did not identify any actions to implement this matter for congressional consideration. |
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Defense capabilitiesDefense procurementFuture budget projectionsDefense cost controlStrategic planningProgram evaluationPolicy evaluationStrategic forcesGovernment accountability and performanceBallistic missiles