**GAO-03-456**                      Published: Mar 28, 2003. Publicly Released: Mar 28, 2003.                  

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## Highlights

The Department of Defense's (DOD) readiness assessment  system was designed to assess the ability of units and joint forces to fight and meet the demands of the national security strategy. In 1998, GAO concluded that the readiness reports provided to Congress were vague and ineffective as oversight tools. Since that time, Congress added reporting requirements to enhance its oversight of military readiness. Therefore, the Chairman asked GAO to examine (1) the progress DOD made in resolving issues raised in the 1998 GAO report on both the unit-level readiness reporting system and the lack of specificity in DOD's Quarterly Readiness Reports to the Congress, (2) the extent to which DOD has complied with legislative reporting requirements enacted since 1997, and (3) DOD's plans to improve readiness reporting.

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## Topics

National Defense

Combat readinessDefense capabilitiesReporting requirementsPerformance measuresMilitary readinessDefense budgetsPerformance measurementPerformance goalsNational securityArmed Services