Section 366 of the Bob Stump National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003

Section 366 of the Bob Stump National Defense Authorization Act for  Fiscal Year 2003 required that the Secretary of Defense develop a  comprehensive plan for using existing authorities available to the  Secretaries of Defense and the military departments to address training  constraints caused by limitations on the use of military lands, marine  areas, and airspace that are available in the United States and overseas for  training. OSD’s Training Range Inventory Does Not Yet Contain Sufficient Information to Use as a Baseline for a Comprehensive Plan

OSD’s training range inventory does not yet contain sufficient information  to use as a baseline for developing a comprehensive training range plan. OSD’s Training Range Report Does Not Include a Comprehensive Plan

Without an inventory that fully identifies available training resources,  specific capacities and capabilities, and existing training constraints, it is  difficult to frame a comprehensive training range plan to address  constraints. As a result, OSD’s report does not include a comprehensive  plan to address training constraints caused by limitations on the use of  military lands, marine areas, and airspace that are available in the United  States and overseas for training—as required by section 366. OSD’s Training Range Report Does Not Fully Meet Other Requirements Mandated by Section 366

OSD’s Implementation of the Department of Defense Training Range  Comprehensive Plan report, which is a consolidation of information  provided by the services, does not fully meet other requirements mandated  by section 366. Conclusions

While OSD’s Implementation of the Department of Defense Training  Range Comprehensive Plan report addresses some of the mandated  requirements, it does not fulfill the requirement for an inventory  identifying range capacities or training constraints caused by  encroachment or other factors, such as a lack of adequate maintenance  or modernization; a comprehensive training range plan to address  encroachment on military training ranges; an adequate assessment of  current and future training range requirements; a sufficient evaluation of  the adequacy of current DOD resources, including virtual and constructive  assets, to meet current and future training range requirements;  recommendations for legislative or regulatory changes to address training  constraints; or plans to improve the readiness reporting system. Instead,  the report provides the current status of the services’ various sustainable  range efforts in the United States. To improve future reports, we also recommend that OSD provide a  more complete report to the Congress to fully address the requirements  specified in the section 366 mandate by (1) developing a comprehensive  plan that includes quantifiable goals and milestones for tracking planned  actions and measuring progress, and projected funding requirements to  more fully address identified training constraints, (2) assessing current  and future training range requirements and evaluating the adequacy of  current resources to meet these requirements, and (3) developing a  readiness reporting system to reflect the impact on readiness caused by  training constraints due to limitations on the use of training ranges.
Why GAO Did This Study

Section 366 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003 required the Secretary of Defense to develop a report outlining a comprehensive plan to address training constraints caused by limitations on the use of military lands, marine areas, and air space that are available in the United States and overseas for training. The foundation for that plan is an inventory identifying training resources, capacities and capabilities, and limitations. In response to section 366, this report discusses the extent to which (1) the Office of the Secretary of Defense's (OSD) training range inventory is sufficient for developing the comprehensive training range plan and (2) OSD's 2004 training range report meets other requirements mandated by section 366.

What GAO Found

OSD's training range inventory does not yet contain sufficient information to use as a baseline for developing the comprehensive training range plan required by section 366. As a result, OSD's training range report does not lay out a comprehensive plan to address training constraints caused by limitations on the use of military lands, marine areas, and air space that are available in the United States and overseas for training. First, OSD's training range inventory does not fully identify available training resources, specific capacities and capabilities, and existing training constraints caused by encroachment or other factors to serve as the baseline for the comprehensive training range plan. Second, OSD and the services' inventories are not integrated, readily available, or accessible by potential users so that commanders can schedule the best available resources to provide the required training. Third, OSD's training range report does not include a comprehensive plan with quantifiable goals or milestones for tracking planned actions to measure progress, or projected funding requirements needed to implement the plan. Instead, the report provides the current status of the four services' various sustainable range efforts in the United States, which if successful, overtime should provide a more complete picture of the magnitude and impact of constraints on training. OSD's training range report does not fully address other requirements mandated by section 366. For example, the report does not: (1) fully assess current and future training range requirements; (2) fully evaluate the adequacy of current resources to meet current and future training range requirements in the United States and overseas; (3) identify recommendations for legislative or regulatory changes to address training constraints, even though the Department of Defense (DOD) submitted legislative changes for congressional consideration on April 6, 2004; or (4) contain plans to improve readiness reporting.