Naval Reserves

To reduce the size of the fleet and to meet planned budget cuts, the Navy proposed in March 1990 the decommissioning of all 46 Knox class frigates, which are used to protect merchant ship convoys from submarines. Later that year, however, a Navy task force proposed the "Innovative Naval Reserve Concept," under which eight of the Knox class frigates would be used to train "nucleus crews" to run another 32 frigates that would be decommissioned but maintained at a slightly higher state of readiness; the remaining six frigates would be offered for sale or lease to foreign governments. When the reserve concept was proposed, it was viewed as a hedge against the possibility of a future global war. Given more recent world events, Defense officials acknowledge that no significant foreign powers or alliances now threaten the United States or its interests. GAO concludes that the Knox class frigate program should be canceled, saving an estimated $1.4 billion during a 10-year period.

GAO found that: (1) the Innovative Naval Reserve Concept is a program to use Knox class frigates for training Naval Reserve crews; (2) given political changes in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, the United States does not have a global military challenger; and (3) decommissioning all of the Knox class frigates now would save about $1.4 billion over the next 10 years. GAO believes that the Knox Class Frigate Program is no longer justified due to the absence of a current global military threat to the United States and the prospect of far greater warning times if such a threat should reemerge.

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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