To help respond quickly to crises overseas, the military services store, or preposition, military equipment and supplies on land and on ships near potential conflict areas. With these stocks prepositioned near danger spots, U.S. response times to a crisis are shortened, since only the troops and a relatively modest amount of materiel must be brought by air to an area where the stocks are located. With fewer troops stationed abroad today, prepositioning has become increasingly important. All four military services have programs to preposition a broad range of stocks to be used for various purposes. Some stocks are positioned afloat, which allows responsiveness nearly anywhere in the world, and other stocks are stored ashore near the likely areas of conflict in the Persian Gulf and Korea. This report focuses on the Army and Air Force prepositioning programs because of concerns that emerged about the sufficiency, condition, and management of their prepositioned stocks. The Navy and Marine Corps prepositioning programs are discussed in appendix I. The goal of prepositioning programs is to make military equipment and supplies available to deploying forces faster than would otherwise be possible. The U.S. military can deliver equipment and supplies in three ways: by air, by sea, or by prepositioning. While airplanes travel quickly, they are expensive to use and impractical for moving all the materiel needed for a large-scale deployment. And though ships can carry large loads, they are slow. Prepositioning lessens the strain of using expensive airlift and reduces reliance on relatively slow sealift deliveries. In its 1997 Annual Report to the President and the Congress, DOD noted that moving an Army brigade of soldiers and 20,000 tons of equipment from the United States to the conflict area (by sea and air) would take 20 to 30 days. By contrast, fully deploying a prepositioned brigade should take just 4 days because only the soldiers, with a small amount of equipment, would be flown to the location of the prepositioned stocks. Although the concept of prepositioning is not new, it has gained importance in the post-Cold War world. Since its 1993 Bottom-Up Review, DOD has focused on maintaining capabilities to fight and win major conflicts in the Persian Gulf region and on the Korean peninsula. Concerned about the reduction in U.S. forces overseas and their ability to move forces in the time required to resolve potential conflicts quickly, the services have expanded prepositioning ashore and on ships in those regions. In the Persian Gulf, where the United States has few permanent forces, prepositioned stocks would be the primary source of combat equipment for ground troops and would be critical in setting up air bases there. In Korea, the Army has prepositioned a brigade set to augment the combat capabilities of U.S. forces there. While prepositioning figured prominently in the previous mobility studies performed by DOD, the Quadrennial Defense Review completed in 1997 did not consider prepositioning as a major part of its scope. Instead, DOD officials told us that prepositioning was to be reconsidered as part of the planned update to the mobility studies, scheduled to begin in 1999. The services generally measure the readiness of prepositioned stocks by determining their inventory fill and maintenance condition—that is, do they have the required stocks on hand and are those stocks in condition to fulfill the mission. To assess inventory fill, the rate of fill is compared to the requirements. These requirements must be valid to achieve a reliable objective assessment. To assess both inventory levels and maintenance condition, the services must have reliable information about the on-hand stocks and their current condition. Other factors affecting the readiness of the prepositioned stocks are their location, that is, are they close to where they are needed, and the training of the units to use them. Unless required stocks are available and in good condition, the purpose of prepositioning may be defeated because the deploying unit will lose valuable time repairing or replacing equipment. To provide a context within which to assess the services’ programs, we used the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA), which suggests that agencies working toward results-oriented management should take three steps, including (1) defining their mission and identifying desired outcomes; (2) measuring performance; and (3) using performance information to improve organizational processes, identify gaps, and set goals for improvement. We have published several reports about prepositioning, including three in 1997 about various aspects of the Army’s program. A list of related reports by GAO and other organizations is at the end of this report. The Army prepositions materiel for three primary programs: prepositioned equipment sets, operational projects, and sustainment stocks. This materiel ranges from Abrams tanks to cold weather clothing. In 1992, the Army shifted responsibility for managing these stocks, except for medical items, from its theater commanders to the Army Materiel Command. The purpose of the shift was to establish a common stockpile of equipment to support worldwide requirements. According to the Army, the budget for operating and maintaining its prepositioning programs in fiscal year 1997 was about $536 million. The Army’s goal for prepositioning is to establish eight brigade sets, seven of which are fully or partially in place. Each brigade set contains tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, artillery pieces, trucks, and other rolling stock to support three or four battalions of Army combat troops, or about 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers. A support battalion is placed with each brigade set to maintain it and provide other critical support unit equipment. In addition to the brigade sets, the Army also has a division base set planned for Southwest Asia, which would provide support equipment for aviation and other equipment, and an artillery battalion and ammunition in Norway. Of the seven established brigade sets, six are ashore and one is afloat. Three of the six ashore are in Europe; the other three are in Kuwait, Qatar, and Korea. The brigade set afloat is being placed on a fleet of ships being bought for prepositioning purposes. The eighth brigade set, approved in mid-1998 by DOD, is to be placed afloat in 2001. This brigade set will be smaller than the others and is designed to complement equipment already afloat. Table 1.1 shows the location of and major combat systems in each brigade set. Operational projects provide equipment and other items for specific missions. Prepositioned materiel for these projects includes equipment and supplies that are not usually maintained by units. For example, some projects provide petroleum distribution and water systems, aircraft landing mats, and bridges. Projects can contain a single type of materiel, such as aircraft landing mats, or hundreds of different items such as hot and cold weather clothing. Of the 15 operational projects authorized, 10 are prepositioned on ships or outside the United States. These projects are lower in priority for funding than the prepositioned brigade sets. Sustainment stocks are intended to provide consumable supplies and support troops by repairing and replacing equipment that is damaged or lost during a conflict until resupply lines are opened. They include items from almost all classes of supply, including meals, clothing, petroleum, barbed wire, ammunition, tanks, trucks, medical supplies, and repair parts. Major items such as tanks and trucks are authorized only to support operational plans for the Persian Gulf and Korea. Other stocks are stored afloat and on land and can be used to support any scenario. These stocks are among the lowest in priority for prepositioning funding. The Army owns and controls reserve materiel that is excess to U.S. needs and may be turned over to allies during a crisis. This materiel is located primarily in Korea, Israel, and Thailand. Initiated in 1972, the materiel in Korea now includes over 550,000 short tons of ammunition and some older equipment that would normally be disposed of through foreign military sales or other means. The materiel in Thailand and Israel consists primarily of ammunition, but in much smaller amounts than that in Korea. The Air Force prepositioning program includes bare base sets; vehicles; munitions; and a variety of consumable stocks such as rations, fuel support equipment, aircraft accessories, and medical supplies. These programs are to initiate and maintain flight operations until supply channels can be established. The prepositioning programs of the Air Force are managed regionally. According to the Air Force, the budget for operating and maintaining these programs in fiscal year 1997 was about $72 million. The Air Force’s bare base program comprises air transportable sets of equipment to be used to quickly establish or augment air bases worldwide in support of combat forces and aircraft. Each location must have minimal infrastructure such as usable runways, taxiways, parking areas, and a source of water that can be made drinkable. Equipment in the sets includes tents for troops, latrines, kitchens, aircraft hangars, maintenance shops, generators, and environmental control systems. These sets are especially critical in austere environments, such as the Persian Gulf, where they would provide the bulk of living and working facilities at several planned operating locations. Figure 1.1 shows a bare base facility that is set up in Bahrain. The bare base program is authorized 109 prepositioned bare base equipment sets worldwide. The bare base sets designated for the Persian Gulf, called Harvest Falcon, includes 93 sets of prepositioned materiel. The Air Force said that for this program, it requires bare base facilities to house 55,000 personnel and support over 800 aircraft at 15 different locations in the Persian Gulf region. The Air Force established the number of sets in the late 1980s, and it has remained constant since then. The bare base sets designated for Europe and Korea, called Harvest Eagle, includes 8 sets each authorized for Europe and Korea. These sets are designed for more temperate climates, and augment existing base facilities. Each set provides living facilities for 550 personnel.