These records indicated that, as previously disclosed by the White House, staff members flew in military helicopters 14 times without the President, Vice President, First Lady, wife of the Vice President, or Heads of State during this period. Our work did not identify any additional White House staff flights. The automated data we obtained covered 6,120 flights of HMX-1 aircraft from January 21, 1993, to May 24, 1994. Travel by Senior Officials on Government Aircraft

Approximately 500 fixed-wing airplanes and 100 helicopters are used for DOD’s OSA mission, which includes transporting senior-level officials in support of command, installation, or management functions. April 1995 Osa Inventory Is 10 Times Greater Than Number of OSA Aircraft Used in the Persian Gulf War

DOD’s policy states that the OSA inventory of fixed-wing aircraft should be based solely on wartime requirements. Plans are also underway to assign to the Joint Chiefs of Staff responsibility for determining DOD’s annual OSA requirements. The new policy (1) requires the services to use the smallest and most cost-effective mission-capable aircraft available; (2) requires the Secretary of Defense’s or the military department secretary’s approval for use of military aircraft by required use officials for permanent change-of-station moves;(3) prohibits the scheduling of training flights strictly to accommodate senior-level officials’ travel; (4) allows the military department secretaries to further restrict the required use designation for four-star officers in their respective departments; and (5) limits the use of helicopters for senior-level officials’ travel. For both the Air Force and the Army, the most frequently traveled helicopter route was between Andrews Air Force Base and the Pentagon, a distance of about 15 miles.
Why GAO Did This Study

GAO discussed the use of military helicopters and other government aircraft to transport White House staff and senior-level military and civilian officials.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) White House staff members had flown in military helicopters 14 times from January 21, 1993 to May 24, 1994 without the accompaniment of the President, Vice President, First Lady, Vice-President's wife, or Heads of State; (2) Department of Defense (DOD) policy states that the military services' operational support airlift (OSA) inventory of fixed-wing aircraft should be based strictly on wartime requirements, but DOD has not provided guidance on how the services should count their OSA aircraft or determine their wartime requirements; (3) the April 1995 OSA inventory of 520 fixed wing aircraft exceeds the Air Force's wartime requirements; (4) the military helicopters located in the Washington, D.C. area are not justified based on OSA wartime requirements; (5) the most frequent flight for DOD senior officials is to or from Andrews Air Force Base, MD; (6) in response to GAO recommendations, the Joint Chiefs of Staff has recommended a reduction in the number of OSA aircraft and DOD has strengthened the policy governing the use of OSA aircraft by senior-level travelers; and (7) only 19 of 1,500 aircraft operated by civilian agencies are used to routinely transport senior-level officials.