Military Training: DOD Continues to Improve Its Report on the Sustainability of Training Ranges

摘要

To review actions DOD reported to address two GAO recommendations made in response to prior sustainable ranges reports, we compared the information contained in DOD's 2010 sustainable ranges report with these two recommendations. We focused on these recommendations because DOD had not fully addressed them in its sustainable ranges reports. Regarding the remaining recommendations that GAO had made in response to prior sustainable ranges reports, at the time of our review, DOD had either taken action on these recommendations or was in the midst of implementing them. To determine the extent to which the 2010 sustainable ranges report differs from the 2009 submission, we compared the two reports and discussed key revisions with military and other DOD officials involved with preparing these reports. We also discussed with Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) officials their plans for the 2011 report submission and reviewed their data request sent to the military services in July 2010 requesting information for the 2011 report. We further discussed with these and other military officials the extent to which opportunities exist for improving future sustainable ranges report submissions. We also reviewed the extent to which DOD's sustainable ranges report has addressed the elements of subsection 366(a)(5). The intent of our review was not to comprehensively evaluate the data presented in the 2010 and 2009 sustainable ranges reports but rather to determine the extent to which the report indicated that DOD had made progress implementing prior recommendations and whether the report could be improved.