U.S. Combat Air Power

In view of continuing concerns over future defense spending and the military's services' ample ability to intercept enemy missiles and aircraft, GAO questions the Pentagon's decision to upgrade warplanes and other weapons systems at a cost of more than $200 billion during the next 20 years. GAO recommends that the Defense Department routinely review modernization proposals according to how they will enhance the overall ability of the U.S. military to intercept enemy targets. Proposals that add redundancy, such as the B-1B and Apache modifications and the purchase of F/A-18E/Fs, attack helicopters, and precision-guided missiles, should be examined in the context of the additional interdiction capability they offer. This analysis could serve as the basis for deciding funding priorities, the sufficiency of investment, and the future force structure.

GAO found that: (1) although the services have determined that they have enough capability to carry out the national military strategy of being able to engage and win in two nearly simultaneous major regional conflicts, the services plan to spend over $213 billion to modify and purchase weapons; (2) the services' independently developed modernization plans do not consider the other services' capabilities, sometimes resulting in interdiction redundancies; (3) some weapons modernization proposals may not be sound investments because they may add expensive new capabilities that may be redundant or unnecessary; and (4) until the Department of Defense assesses interdiction capabilities in the aggregate, there can be little assurance that the appropriate, most cost-effective mix of weapons systems is being identified, developed, and fielded for interdiction missions.

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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