US Army Needs to Improve How New Equipment is Fielded, Report Says

July 17, 2024

Since 2021, the U.S. Army has invested $46.5 billion into developing new weapons and fielding them faster. However, a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report finds that the Army has sometimes put new equipment into the field before plans for the facilities, personnel, and training were ready.

The Army's new approach to generate ready forces, the Regionally Aligned Readiness and Modernization Model (ReARMM), is key to the Army realizing its modernization investments. The Army has adopted new acquisition approaches to rapidly develop multiple types of modernized equipment, which it has categorized into six modernization priorities. Using ReARMM, the Army had fielded six new priority equipment efforts as of November 2023, with ten more scheduled over the next 2 years.

Since it began implementing ReARMM in fiscal year 2020, the Army has generally met its deployment requirements, according to officials. It has organized most of its units, such as brigade combat teams, into ReARMM phases, including one designated for equipping. It has also aligned the units to specific geographic regions. However, some Army National Guard units received equipment, transferred from regular Army units, that was in poor condition. This led the National Guard units to incur unexpected costs, additional labor hours, and training delays. For example, beginning in May 2022, the Army transferred 138 displaced Bradley Fighting Vehicles to the Tennessee Army National Guard.

The Army is planning to transfer additional equipment to the Army National Guard under ReARMM. Identifying and implementing corrective actions to reasonably assure that transferred equipment meets mission-capable condition standards would reduce the risk of units incurring unexpected costs and delays in their modernization and training.

The Army has fielded new equipment to the first units before completing some key planning elements, such as building facilities, assigning personnel, and planning for training. The Army is required to use a process to identify, approve, and resource new requirements within each relevant planning element. However, GAO analysis of Army documents found that as of November 2023, the Army fielded six of the previously discussed new priority equipment items with at least one incomplete planning element at the time that the first unit received them.

Further, the Army fielded the majority of these items with three or more incomplete planning elements at the time that the first unit received them. When the Army fields new equipment to units without fully completing the planning elements, units may not be well positioned to operate the new equipment. By adjusting its planning elements processes so that they are completed earlier and documenting these changes, the Army will be better able to complete all elements in time for fielding. The Army would also be better able to support units that are operating and maintaining the new equipment.

In 2019, the Army revised its core process to organize, staff, equip, and train forces. The Army uses ReARMM to prepare forces for combat, while intending to field new equipment on a more predictable schedule, to ensure that units train and deploy with the most modern weapon systems.

House Report 117-397 accompanying a bill for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 includes a provision for GAO to assess the status, progress, budget implications, and potential challenges of implementing ReARMM.

In a 46-page report published on July 15, GAO describes the Army's (1) investments in modernization and examines the extent to which the Army has (2) made progress in implementing ReARMM and (3) supported planning for new equipment to be fielded through ReARMM.

In the report, GAO is making the following three recommendations to improve the Army's process for fielding new equipment, including: implement corrective actions to ensure equipment meets condition standards before transfer, determine and adjust processes to better complete planning elements before fielding, and document those process adjustments.

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