Army Equipment

The Army is continually modifying its fielded equipment to add new capabilities or overcome safety and operational shortcomings. This report discusses the Army's management of its multibillion-dollar modification work order program, under which it upgrades fielded weapon systems and other equipment. GAO discusses (1) the availability of information needed by Army headquarters and field personnel to effectively oversee and manage the program, (2) the availability of spare parts needed by personnel in the field to maintain modified equipment, and (3) field personnel's experiences in implementing the program.

GAO noted that: (1) Army headquarters officials and Army Materiel Command officials no longer have the information they need to effectively oversee and manage the MWO program; (2) this occurred because the centralized database to track installation and funding was discontinued; control over modification installation funding was transferred from the headquarters level to individual program sponsors; and the authority over configuration control boards, which ensured the completeness and compliance of MWOs with policy, was transferred to individual program sponsors; (3) as a result, Army officials do not have an adequate overview of the status of equipment modifications across the force, funding requirements, logistical support requirements, and information needed for deployment decisions; (4) the lack of information is also a problem at field units; (5) maintenance personnel have not always known which modifications should have been made to equipment or which modifications have actually been made; (6) in addition, maintainers of equipment have not always received the technical information they need in a timely manner to properly maintain modified equipment; (7) maintenance personnel in the field have had difficulty obtaining spare parts to maintain modified equipment because program sponsors frequently had not ordered initial spare parts when they acquired modification kits; (8) Army officials believe these problems occurred because they lost oversight and control of the program and policies and procedures were not being consistently applied by the individual program sponsors; (9) because spare parts have often not been available, maintenance personnel have made additional efforts to maintain modified equipment; (10) supply system personnel have not always followed policies and procedures to ensure that supply system records were updated to show the addition of new spare parts and the deletion of replaced spare parts; (11) as a result, the Army's budget for spare parts may not reflect accurate requirements for new components to repair and maintain modified weapon systems and equipment; (12) maintenance personnel in the field have also experienced a variety of problems in implementing MWOs; (13) maintainers have not always received adequate notice of pending modifications, and training schedules and equipment maintenance have been adversely affected; (14) GAO was told that various items of equipment did not always work together once some modifications were made; and (15) according to Army officials, these problems also occurred because of their loss of oversight and control.

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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