Military Services' Peacetime Consumption of Missiles for Training and Evaluation

Testimony was given on the results of a recent GAO review of missile firing for training and evaluation purposes. In fiscal year 1984, the military services plan to fire about 7,900 missiles for training and evaluation purposes. GAO found that the Department of Defense (DOD) needs to develop better criteria as to how many missiles the services need to fire to achieve these goals since minimizing the number of missiles used is important to meet wartime inventory requirements. GAO found that DOD has not issued policy guidance for the peacetime consumption of missiles. Therefore, there is a variation within and between the services for firing missiles. GAO has found that service missile firing results show that firing missiles may not be necessary to achieve proficiency since most target misses are the result of missile or system malfunctions rather than pilot or gunner error. Furthermore, combat-qualified pilots and gunners can be trained with other devices. The Navy and the Marine Corps annual missile firing requirement has been reduced by 50 percent during 1984 to increase missile inventories, and the Navy is studying the use of other training devices to further reduce missile firings. Moreover, the Army has found that simulators are highly effective in developing target-tracking skills. Finally, GAO found that: (1) some missile targets do not realistically simulate the threat; (2) some missile shots are at non-maneuvering targets; and (3) pilots usually know the direction, altitude, and speed of the target in advance because of the artificial conditions imposed by safety and range restrictions.