Overview of the Status of the Defense Industrial Base and DOD's Industrial Preparedness Planning

Gao ID: NSIAD-85-69 May 23, 1985

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed selected aspects of the Department of Defense's (DOD) requirements for peacetime and war reserve stocks of spare parts and provided an overview of the status of the defense industrial base and DOD industrial preparedness planning.

GAO found that, although a number of studies have expressed concerns about the adequacy of the defense industrial base and its capacity to surge production rates to meet short-term situations, DOD has recently taken actions to revitalize the responsiveness of the defense industrial base and improve industrial preparedness planning. Part of this action requires the military services to annually submit production base analyses (PBA) that show the status of the industrial base and the proposed measures and costs to enhance the industrial base. DOD has encouraged the services to use the contract production surge concept that can substantially reduce: (1) production lead time for critical items in emergency situations; (2) the risk of obsolete parts; and (3) the storage space requirements. Finally, GAO found that the services were losing opportunities to use wartime production capabilities to offset war reserve requirements.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Harry R. Finley Team: General Accounting Office: National Security and International Affairs Division Phone: (202) 512-5187


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