On the basis of this and other concerns, the Secretary of Defense directed in May 1997 that the number of CJCS exercise man-days be decreased by 15 percent between fiscal year 1996 and 1998 to reduce the potential impact of the exercise program on deployment rates. In addition, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1998 (P.L. Exercises Are Conducted for Various CINC Mission Requirements

The regional CINCs use the CJCS Exercise Program largely to ensure that their forces are trained to conduct missions contained in contingency plans, provide joint training, and project a military presence worldwide to shape the international environment. Some exercises focus on just one of these objectives, whereas others, such as war-fighting training, focus on more than one objective (i.e., contingency plans and joint training). On average, about 37 percent of these exercises have or will train forces to implement the CINCs’ existing contingency plans; about 60 percent are designed to prepare U.S. forces for joint operations; and approximately 44 percent are designed primarily for engagement purposes, such as projecting U.S. military presence abroad or fostering relations with foreign military forces. The percentage of exercises intended to provide joint training at the regional CINCs has increased over the past 3 to 4 years. Of the 1,405 CJCS exercises conducted or planned to be conducted during fiscal years 1995-2002, 625, or about 44 percent, were directed toward engagement activities. However, the Joint Staff estimated that the CJCS Exercise Program would cost about $400 million to $500 million annually during fiscal years 1995-2000. The Joint Staff’s estimate was derived from a combination of actual and estimated costs; therefore, we were unable to independently verify the estimate. Costs Associated With CJCS Exercises

A variety of costs are directly associated with conducting CJCS exercises. DOD Lacks the Data to Assess the Program’s Impact on Service Deployment Rates

The services use various methods to track the time individuals or units spend engaged in operations and time deployed away from their home stations because there is no DOD-wide requirement to collect and maintain specific personnel deployment rate data. The Joint Staff Does Not Track the Impact of CJCS Exercises on Overall Personnel Deployment Rates

The readiness staff at Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps headquarters, which monitor data systems, currently do not track the impact of CJCS exercise participation on overall personnel or unit deployment rates. The cost data in DOD’s February 1998 report to Congress is incomplete because some service participation costs are not included. Because DOD does not consistently track information on deployments, the impact of the exercise program on overall deployment rates cannot be precisely determined. As our report points out, without such cost information, DOD cannot determine total program costs. DOD acknowledged that the services’ ability to measure overall personnel and unit deployment rates is still evolving and is not yet robust enough to allow the agency to determine the share attributable to the CJCS Exercise Program. We determined the systems the Joint Staff, CINCs, services, and major commands use to track military personnel and unit deployments by contacting the following organizations: the Joint Staff Operational Plans and Interoperability Directorate (J-7); the U.S. Atlantic, Central, European, Pacific, and Southern Commands; the Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations; the Air Force Operations Support Center, Training Division; the Office of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Plans, Policy, and Operations; and the Marine Corps Current Operations Branch Exercise Office, Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans, Policies, and Operations.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS), Exercise Program, focusing on the: (1) number and type of CJCS exercises conducted and planned from 1995 to 2002; (2) basis for the Department of Defense's (DOD) estimates of exercise costs for the same time period; and (3) availability of DOD data to estimate the impact of CJCS exercises on deployment rates.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) DOD cannot determine the impact of the CJCS Exercise Program on overall deployment rates because DOD does not have a system that accurately and consistently measures overall deployment rates across the services; (2) without such a system, DOD cannot objectively assess the extent to which the program contributes to deployment rate concerns; (3) from fiscal year (FY) 1995 to 2002, 1,405 exercises were or are planned to be conducted as part of the program at the 5 regional commands; (4) the objectives of these exercises are to: (a) ensure that U.S. forces are trained to conduct their highest-priority mission contained in regional command contingency plans; (b) provide joint training for commanders, staff, and forces; and (c) project a military presence worldwide and support commitments to U.S. allies; (5) some exercises focus on just one of these objectives, whereas others focus on more; (6) about 37 percent of the exercises during FY 1995 through 2002 are directly related to executing contingency plans, 60 percent are intended to provide joint training benefits, and about 44 percent are primarily directed toward engagement activities with foreign nations' military forces and U.S. allies; (7) the Joint Staff maintains data on transportation-related expenses but does not monitor and track the complete costs of the program; (8) before the FY 1998 National Defense Authorization Act, DOD was not required to determine total program costs; (9) in DOD's February 1998 mandated report to Congress, the Joint Staff used a combination of actual and estimated costs to estimate that the total program would cost between $400 million and $500 million annually from FY 1995 to 2000; (10) DOD does not maintain the data that would enable it to determine the extent to which military personnel deployments associated with the program contribute to overall DOD-wide personnel or unit deployment rates; (11) the services use various methods to track individual or unit deployments and collect some data on the numbers of personnel or units that participate in CJCS exercises and the length of personnel deployments associated with the exercises; and (12) the services' ability to measure overall personnel or unit deployment rates is still evolving; as a result, the impact of the CJCS Exercise Program on deployment rates remains unknown.