Summary

In a period of downsizing and shrinking budgets, maintaining forces that are highly trained and ready to fight is a formidable challenge. Concerns have been raised about the potential for the U.S. military to be reduced to the "hollow forces" that prevailed during the 1970s. GAO testified that the Pentagon's system for measuring readiness yields valuable data, but it is not comprehensive and cannot signal an impending change in readiness. The military commands are monitoring many additional indicators to supplement data now being reported, and GAO is examining these indicators to see whether a consensus exists on which indicators are most important and have predictive value. A future readiness system should factor in jointness, have predictive capability, facilitate trend analyses, and provide more objective and candid assessments. The military commands have expressed concerns about the status of current and future readiness, but it is not feasible for GAO to present a bottom line given the absence of consensus on readiness indicators and how they should be viewed collectively.