Military Readiness: Navy's Fleet Response Plan Would Benefit from a Comprehensive Management Approach and Rigorous Testing Page: 2 of 37
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GAO
aAccountabiity Integrity-Reliability
Highlights
Highlights of GAO-06-84, a report to
congressional committeesWhy GAO Did This Study
The Navy has been transforming
itself to better meet 21st century
needs. Since 2000, the Congress
has appropriated about $50 billion
annually for the Navy to operate
and maintain its forces and support
around 376,000 military personnel.
In recognizing that the Navy faces
affordability issues in sustaining
readiness within its historical share
of the defense budget, the Chief of
Naval Operations announced a
concept called the Fleet Response
Plan to enhance its deployment
readiness status. The Fleet
Response Plan is designed to more
rapidly prepare and sustain
readiness in ships and squadrons.
GAO evaluated the extent to which
the Navy has (1) employed a sound
management approach in
implementing the Fleet Response
Plan and (2) tested and evaluated
the effectiveness of the plan and
shared results to improve
implementation.
To facilitate implementation of the
Fleet Response Plan, GAO
recommends that the Navy develop
a comprehensive management plan
with goals and performance
measures. GAO also recommends
that the Navy develop a
comprehensive testing and
evaluation plan to help determine
whether the plan has been
successful. The Department of
Defense generally agreed with
GAO's recommendations and
described efforts to address them.
www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-84.
To view the full product, including the scope
and methodology, click on the link above.
For more information, contact Janet St.
Laurent at (202) 512-4402 or
stlaurentj @gao.gov.MILITARY READINESS
Navy's Fleet Response Plan Would
Benefit from a Comprehensive
Management Approach and Rigorous
Testing
What GAO Found
In establishing the Fleet Response Plan, the Navy has embraced a major
change in the way it manages its forces. However, the Navy's management
approach in implementing the Fleet Response Plan has not fully incorporated
sound management practices needed to guide and assess implementation.
These practices include (1) establishing a coherent mission and strategic
goals, including resource commitments; (2) setting implementation goals and a
timeline; and (3) establishing a communication strategy. While the Navy has
taken a number of positive actions to implement the plan, it has not provided
readiness goals for units other than carrier strike groups; resource and
maintenance goals; performance measures and timelines; or a
communications strategy. Sound management practices were not fully
developed because senior leaders wanted to quickly implement the plan in
response to changes in the security environment. However, without an overall
management plan containing all of these elements, it may be difficult for the
Navy to determine whether its efforts to improve the fleet's readiness are
achieving the desired results, adequately measuring overall progress, or
identifying what resources are needed to implement the Fleet Response Plan.
The Navy has not fully tested and evaluated the Fleet Response Plan or
developed lessons learned to identify the effectiveness of its implementation
and success over time. Systematic testing and evaluation of new concepts is an
established practice to gain insight into how systems and capabilities will
perform in actual operations. However, instead of methodically conducting
realistic tests to evaluate the Fleet Response Plan, the Navy has tried to
demonstrate the viability of the plan by relying on loosely linked events that
were not part of an overall test and evaluation strategy. This approach could
impair the Navy's ability to validate the plan and evaluate its success over
time. In addition, the Navy has not used its lessons learned system to share the
results of its Fleet Response Plan events or as an analytical tool to evaluate the
progress of the plan and improve implementation, which limits the Navy's
ability to identify and correct weaknesses across the fleet.
The U.S.S. George Washington Carrier Strike Group Sailing to Participate in an ExerciseSource: U.S. Navy
United States Government Accountability Office
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United States. Government Accountability Office. Military Readiness: Navy's Fleet Response Plan Would Benefit from a Comprehensive Management Approach and Rigorous Testing, report, November 22, 2005; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc301430/m1/2/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.