Force Structure

Army's Support Requirements Process Lacks Valid and Consistent Data Gao ID: NSIAD-95-43 January 30, 1995

The Total Army Analysis (TAA) process is used to determine the required support forces needed to sustain combat divisions and brigades. Support forces included such units as transportation, maintenance, military police, and quartermaster. GAO found that the Army lacks adequate procedures governing the development and review of logistical data in the TAA process. Until recently, the Army regulations only focused on the management and validation of one type of logistical data--planning factors. These regulations were not followed, however, allowing outdated or unreliable information to be used in TAA. The Army has changed its regulations to require that all logistical data in the Army Force Planning Data and Assumptions document be validated and that the Combined Arms Support Command centrally manage the process. Although this is a step in the right direction, GAO believes that more guidance is needed to ensure the validity of all logistical data and sufficient oversight of the process. The data and assumptions that Army programmers used in the TAA process sometimes differ from what Army component planners use for war plans. These differences contribute to vastly different requirements. Since TAA requirements are the basis for resourcing decisions, these differences need to be identified and evaluated to ensure that there are valid reasons for them.

GAO found that: (1) the Army lacks adequate procedures to govern the development and review of logistical data used in the TAA process; (2) until recently, Army regulations only focused on the management and validation of planning factors, and those regulations were not followed; (3) the Army has revised its regulations to require that all logistical TAA data be validated and that the process be centrally managed, but further guidance is needed to ensure the validity of all data and sufficient oversight of the process; and (4) Army programmers sometimes use data and assumptions in the TAA process that differ from what Army component planners use for war plans, which can result in vastly different 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.

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