Army's Requirements for War Reserve Materiel Can Be Reduced without Impairing Combat Effectiveness

War reserve materiel is now prestocked, and reserve requirements are based on studies of enemy threats and capabilities. At the end of fiscal year 1978, the Army reported a $1.7 billion deficiency in war reserve stock fund items, with major deficiencies in clothing and textile items and aviation spare parts.

If this deficiency were valid, it would seem to leave the Army unprepared for an armed conflict. However, the reported requirements and deficiencies are overstated because of a number of assumptions and factors, such as: incongruities in logistics planning for war reserve stock fund items; the Army's spare parts requirements which are based on outmoded, maximum delivery times while the flying-hour program is based on rapid delivery of helicopters; deficiencies in the Army's high-priority stocks which are prepositioned for ready mobilization while the Defense Logistics Agency has some of the same types of items in lower priority inventories; and problems with requirements for chemical protective clothing. A recent Secretary of Defense directive limits procurement of war reserve items to satisfy needs for only one-half the days in the total planning scenario period, but the Army includes safety levels and residual force quantities as early mobilization requirements which tends to unnecessarily increase requirements.

Recommendations

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