Military Training: Actions Needed to Enhance DOD's Program to Transform Joint Training
GAO-05-548
Published: Jun 21, 2005. Publicly Released: Jun 21, 2005.
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Highlights
U.S. forces are conducting more complex operations, requiring increased interoperability between the military commands, services, and other organizations. Department of Defense (DOD) planning guidance calls for transforming military training by increasing the jointness in training. The overall intent of DOD's Training Transformation Program is to assure commanders that forces deployed to their theater are not experiencing joint operations for the first time. Therefore, the program's strategic goals focus on providing joint training that meets commanders' needs and links to readiness assessments. Given the significant investment planned in the program and the impact it will have on the military, this report provides a program overview, including (1) DOD's overall management approach and status of key initiatives, and (2) some significant management challenges that have emerged early in the program's implementation.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense | To promote effective partnerships and mitigate the risk of implementing Training Transformation Program components that are not fully supported by the combatant commands, services, and other federal agencies, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness to assess the effectiveness of their communication and coordination efforts of the training transformation initiatives and take additional steps to enhance stakeholders' understanding of the program's goals and initiatives. | In reviewing DOD's implementation of its Training Transformation Initiative, GAO found an inconsistent understanding among some DOD stakeholders of the strategic vision and rationale behind the implementation and development of the initiatives. Furthermore, GAO found that DOD has not assessed its communication and coordination efforts to determine their effectiveness in providing a common understanding among stakeholders. GAO concluded that until DOD took steps to ensure a common understanding among its joint training stakeholders at all levels, DOD risked not building the necessary partnerships to gain the commitment to fully implement the training transformation initiatives. GAO... recommended that the Secretary of Defense direct the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness to assess the effectiveness of their communication and coordination efforts of the training transformation initiatives and take additional steps to enhance stakeholders' understanding of the program's goals and initiatives. Based on our work with OSD's Personnel and Readiness office, we have documented a number of actions taken to implement this recommendation. First, DOD's Training Transformation Assessment dated December 2005 included communications as an element and was widely distributed among service, combat commands and other stakeholders. The document provided details on the program's current and future direction. Secondly, OSD has adopted a Strategic Communications Plan for Training Transformation. According to OSD, this plan is designed to improve the services', combatant commanders', non-DOD entities' and the public's understanding of training transformation. To support its plan, DOD has placed additional Support Element personnel within service and combatant command training programs to serve as a liaison to improve communications and further support the goals of the training transformation program. To date, DOD has established and filled 40 support element positions and has plans for 18 more by the end of fiscal year 2007. Lastly, the Joint National Training Capability accreditation process is serving as a mechanism for increasing the communication and interaction between training transformation personnel and service and combatant command training personnel. Currently, DOD has accredited 17 service and combatant command training programs and expects to accredit an additional 9 during 2007.
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| Department of Defense | To promote effective partnerships and mitigate the risk of implementing Training Transformation Program components that are not fully supported by the combatant commands, services, and other federal agencies, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness to elevate outreach efforts to senior leadership within non-DOD agencies and organizations to ensure these stakeholders' full understanding, buy-in, and commitment. | In reviewing DOD's implementation of its Training Transformation Initiative, GAO found that while DOD officials have been proactive in engaging external stakeholders in identifying potential joint training opportunities, their outreach to the senior-level leadership of external organizations has been limited. GAO concluded that without a targeted effort to ensure senior leadership support from non-DOD agency and organization partners, DOD risks not being able to maintain a collaborative environment with its external stakeholders and to implement interagency, intergovernmental, and multinational training outcomes successfully. Therefore, GAO recommended that the Secretary of Defense...
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| Department of Defense | To promote effective partnerships and mitigate the risk of implementing Training Transformation Program components that are not fully supported by the combatant commands, services, and other federal agencies, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Joint Forces Command to use the Joint Training System to establish all training requirements at the joint tactical level in order to promote widespread participation and better opportunities for stakeholders' acceptance of the requirements. | According to OSD officials, the Joint Staff and members of U.S. Joint Forces Command continue their collaborative work to incorporate joint tactical tasks into the Universal Joint Tasks List. Approximately one third of the nearly fifty original joint tactical tasks, recently renamed to Universal Joint Tasks, submitted during the 25-27 March 2006 Universal Joint Tasks List Working Party conference, were approved for incorporation into the Universal Joint Tasks List. Another approximately one third were edited and resubmitted to the Joint Staff for approval. These are currently going through the approval process. The final third are still under revision at U.S. Joint Forces Command. We...
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Combat readinessDefense capabilitiesMilitary forcesMilitary operationsMilitary trainingProgram evaluationProgram managementStrategic planningTraining utilizationMilitary interoperabilityProgram implementation