Government Aircraft

GAO reviewed Defense Department (DOD) and civilian agency aircraft used to fly senior military and civilian personnel from October 1992 through March 1995. This briefing report discusses (1) whether the DOD inventory of operational support airlift aircraft was excessive to wartime requirements to support the current military strategy; (2) whether the rules and the regulations governing the use of these aircraft had recently been changed; (3) to what extent senior-level travel was affected by the changes; (4) whether senior DOD officials' trips to the most frequent destinations could have been made aboard government contract carriers; (5) whether DOD helicopters used in the Washington, D.C., area were justified on the basis of wartime requirements; and (6) how often they were flown to nearby destinations. GAO also provides information on the inventory, related costs, and the use of aircraft by civilian agencies.

GAO found that: (1) in 1994, the Air Force determined that its OSA inventory exceeded its wartime requirements, while the other military services determined that their OSA inventories would not support their wartime requirements; (2) in May 1995, DOD issued a revised policy that requires more OSA flights to be justified based on a cost comparison between OSA and commercial carriers; (3) many of the most frequent OSA destinations are also served by contract carriers, but with less scheduling flexibility; (4) the use of military helicopters in the DC area was not justified based on OSA wartime requirements; (5) the Army recently prohibited the use of helicopters for a 15-mile flight from the Pentagon to Andrews Air Force Base; and (6) only 19 of 1,500 civilian agency aircraft were routinely used for senior-level travel.

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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