1992 Defense Budget

Potential Adjustments to Ammunition Programs Gao ID: NSIAD-91-276 September 12, 1991

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed: (1) the military services' justifications for their fiscal year (FY) 1992 budget requests for ammunition; (2) the Army's request for ammunition production base support; (3) selected segments of prior-year ammunition programs; and (4) additional, but unbudgeted, needs identified by the Army and the Marine Corps for FY 1992.

GAO found that the: (1) Army's $1.05-billion FY 1992 request for ammunition can be reduced by $80.4 million, since $47.7 million is for five ammunition items for which program quantities are greater than needed, $28.5 million is for two ammunition items that have unresolved technical problems, and $4.2 million is for an ammunition item for which the cost will decrease; (2) Army's $201.3-million request for ammunition production base support can be reduced by $8.2 million, since $4.4 million is for initial production facilities for which funding is premature, $1.3 million is for modernization projects at plants scheduled for closure, and $2.5 million is for maintenance of inactive binary chemical munitions facilities that will not be needed in FY 1992; (3) Navy's $328.6-million FY 1992 request for ammunition is overstated by $14.9 million for three ammunition items, since $2.8 million is for one item for which the Navy reduced the quantity it intends to buy in FY 1992 and $12.1 million is for two items for which total program quantities will not meet FY 1992 delivery schedules because of production problems; (4) Air Force's $306.7-million FY 1992 request for ammunition can be reduced by $108.7 million; (5) Marine Corps' $526.2-million FY 1992 request for ammunition is overstated by $83.3 million, since $43.7 million is for one item for which the total program quantity cannot be produced in time to meet FY 1992 delivery schedules and $39.6 million is for four items that have reduced requirements; and (6) budgets could be increased for 7 Marine Corps and 12 Army items, since projected inventory levels were lower than the inventory objectives, and those items could be produced within the FY 1992 program period.

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.

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