Defense Transportation: Air Mobility Command Needs to Collect and Analyze Better Data to Assess Aircraft Utilization
Highlights
Airlift is a flexible, but expensive, transportation method. From September 2001 to April 2005, the Department of Defense (DOD) has spent about $9.5 billion using airlift to transport equipment, supplies, and troops for Operations Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Iraqi Freedom (OIF). As of December 2004, airlift accounted for about 13 percent of all cargo and passengers transported for these operations. DOD has stated that high demand for available airlift assets requires the department to use airlift assets as efficiently as possible. However, DOD's primary objective emphasizes delivering "the right items to the right place at the right time" over using aircraft capacity as efficiently as possible. Under the Comptroller General's authority, GAO sought to determine whether DOD used capacity on strategic military aircraft transporting cargo and passengers between the United States and overseas theaters for OEF and OIF as efficiently as possible.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense | To help officials determine whether they used an aircraft's capacity as efficiently as possible and improve the reliability and completeness of data on operational factors that can impact payloads, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Air Force to direct the Commander, Air Mobility Command, to revise and clarify relevant data fields in the Global Air Transportation Execution System, and work with DOD entities that support other transportation information systems, such as the Global Transportation Network and service deployment systems, to capture comprehensive, well-defined data on operational factors that impact payloads for individual missions, and require supervisors to review these data fields for accuracy. These factors include--but are not limited to--number of pallet positions used, cargo dimensions, fueling decisions, and altitude constraints. |
The Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Logistics and Material Readiness) concurred with the recommendation. However, based on management comments to the report, DOD believes systems and procedures are already in place to address the recommendations contained in the report. As a result, DOD has not taken additional action. We disagree that systems are in place to provide the level of information we think would be useful for management to have access to.
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| Department of Defense | To help officials determine whether they used an aircraft's capacity as efficiently as possible and improve the reliability and completeness of data on operational factors that can impact payloads, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Air Force to direct the Commander, Air Mobility Command, to systematically collect and analyze information on operational factors that impact payloads transported on strategic airlift missions to identify ways that DOD may be able to use an aircraft's capacity as efficiently as possible. |
The DUSD(Logistics and Materiel Readiness) concurred with the recommendation. However, based on management comments to the report, DOD believes systems and procedures are already in place to address the recommendations contained in the report. As a result, DOD has not taken additional action. We disagree that systems are in place to provide the level of information we think would be useful for management to have access to.
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