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1 1 (October 26, 2022)

handle is hein.crs/govejfj0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congress bna Research Servvs inforrning the iegislve debt sinc 19l14 0 October 26, 2022 Military Readiness: DOD Assessment and Reporting Requirements Military readiness plays an important role in congressional decision-making on a wide array of national security issues. To inform its law-making and oversight activities, Congress requires the Department of Defense (DOD) to regularly assess and report on the readiness of the armed services. Defining Readiness Although readiness lacks a statutory definition, DOD's Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms defines it as the ability of military forces to fight and meet the demands of assigned missions. Similarly, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Instruction 3100.01E, Joint Strategic Planning System, refers to readiness as the ability of the Joint Force to meet immediate contingency and warfighting challenges while preparing for future challenges. These definitions allow for broad interpretation, but many analysts use the term more narrowly to refer to the capability of a given unit or weapon system to successfully perform the specific functions for which it was designed. Readiness, according to this usage, represents the military's ability to execute national strategy assuming size, structure, and type of equipment are held constant; it can therefore be understood largely as a function of manning and training level (for personnel) or availability and maintenance condition (for materiel). This usage, however, does not encompass all the senses in which DOD or Congress uses the term readiness. In addition to the expansive definitions cited above, readiness is also used to signify specific dimensions of preparedness (e.g. operational readiness, materiel readiness, medical readiness). For a more extensive conceptual discussion of readiness, see CRS Report R46559, The Fundamentals of Military Readiness. Comprehensive Readiness To provide a useful picture of U.S. military readiness as a whole, Congress requires the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) to assess and report readiness across the armed services regularly. Secretary of Defense Responsibilities Title 10, Section 117 of the U.S. Code (U.S.C.) requires the Secretary of Defense to establish and maintain a uniform reporting system that measures in an objective, accurate, and timely manner the military's ability to execute the National Security Strategy, the Defense Planning Guidance, and the National Military Strategy. At a minimum, the system is required to measure unit readiness, training establishment capability, and defense infrastructure capability, as well as any critical warfighting deficiencies. It must also measure the extent to which the military is removing parts from one vehicle, vessel, or aircraft to render a different one operational (sometimes referred to as 'cannibalization'). To meet the requirements of 10 U.S.C. §117, DOD uses the Defense Readiness Reporting System (DRRS). DRRS aggregates readiness information and related reporting submitted by commanders, allowing the analysis of resourcing and training ('C-levels') and mission capability ('Y/Q/N assessment') of units across the services (see Table 1). Table I. DRRS Readiness Ratings and Definitions I Rating I Definition I Rating I Definition Source: Government Accountability Office, Military Readiness: Department of Defense Domain Readiness Varied from Fiscal Year 2017 through Fiscal Year 2019, GAO-21 -279, April 2021, pp. 5-6.

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