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GAO-15-430R 1 (2015-04-27)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaaivj0001 and id is 1 raw text is: GAO U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 441 G St. N.W. Washington, DC 20548 April 27, 2015 Congressional Committees Force Structure: Army's Analyses of Aviation Alternatives In anticipation of budget and military end-strength reductions, the Army is undertaking an extensive effort to reduce the size of its force and rebalance its combat aviation capabilities. In October 2013, the Army Chief of Staff approved a force-structure proposal-called the Army Aviation Restructuring Initiative-that would cut approximately 10,700 military positions from the Army's end strength by eliminating active-component and reserve-component units from the Army's force structure.1 The proposal would enable the Army to divest nearly 800 older and less-capable helicopters from the force, and rebalance combat capabilities across the regular Army, Army National Guard, and Army Reserve. The Army would accomplish this by removing all AH-64 Apache helicopters from the reserve component and increasing the number of AH-64 Apaches in the active component. According to the Army, once implemented the aviation restructuring initiative would save roughly $1 billion annually. 2 The National Guard Bureau (Bureau), although agreeing with many aspects of the Army's proposal, has opposed the effort to remove the AH-64 Apache helicopters from the Army National Guard. Bureau officials said that in their view the removal of these helicopters will degrade the Army National Guard's role as a combat reserve; establish a precedent for removing other combat capabilities from the Army National Guard; and disrupt Army National Guard units and force structure across 20 states. In January 2014, the Bureau put forward an alternate force-structure proposal that, if implemented, would retain some AH-64 helicopters in the Army National Guard. Since the Bureau's January 2014 counterproposal, both the Army and the Office of the Secretary of Defense have assessed and compared the Army's proposal and the Bureau's alternative in terms of each proposal's ability to meet anticipated operational demands, and its estimated costs. Bureau officials said that the Bureau does not have the expertise required to assess the performance and costs of its force-structure proposal; however, the Bureau provided input into both analyses. Based on these analyses, the Army stated that implementing the 1Positions are requirements for personnel that are documented on the Army's manpower requirements document. These requirements may not be filled by the Army when making resourcing decisions and as a result do not represent actual manpower assigned to Army units. 2In December 2014, Congress limited the Army's proposal, by authorizing the Secretary of the Army to transfer not more than 48 AH-64 Apache helicopters from the Army National Guard to the regular Army between October 1, 2015, and March 31, 2016, if the Secretary of Defense certifies in writing to the defense committees that the transfer would not create unacceptable risk to: the strategic depth or regeneration capacities of the Army; and the Army National Guard in its role as a combat reserve. See Pub. L. No. 113-291, § 1712(e) and (f) (2014). GAO-15-430R Force Structure Page 1

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