Combat Air Power

Although the Pentagon acknowledges that its strategy for airborne suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) is critical to military air operations, recent budget decisions may undermine SEAD capability. The Defense Department (DOD) is abandoning deployed SEAD capabilities that have significant military value and has dropped plans to improve SEAD's ability to meet new threats. Despite the potential harm to war-fighting capability, DOD has chosen to (1) retire the F-4G without a comparable replacement, (2) retire the EF-111 and use the less suitable EA-6B for Air Force missions, and (3) curtail funding for other SEAD programs. DOD now recognizes that the decline in SEAD capabilities may increase the vulnerability of friendly aircraft, frustrate the accomplishment of U.S. military objectives, and prolong future wars. Nevertheless, DOD has chosen to support less urgent and more prospective combat air power programs, such as the F-22 aircraft. GAO is concerned that DOD's decisions could undermine U.S. war-fighting capabilities and may have to be corrected later, at much greater expense and effort.

GAO found that: (1) since the Vietnam War, DOD has recognized that SEAD is a critical component of air operations, and it used extensive SEAD support during the Persian Gulf War; (2) SEAD is expected to remain a critical component of air combat capability; (3) airborne SEAD capabilities are being reduced, because DOD is retiring the EF-111 and F-4G aircraft, its most capable SEAD aircraft; (4) DOD has given a low funding priority to SEAD programs in favor of such programs as the F-22 aircraft, which GAO believes is not urgently needed; and (5) DOD has not assessed the cumulative impact of reducing SEAD capability.

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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