Summary: GAO testified on: (1) its annual reviews of the military services' ammunition budgets; and (2) its evaluation of the President's budget request of $5.3 billion for ammunition items and $368.4 million for enhancing ammunition production facilities. The reviews focused on whether: (1) the quantities requested were needed; (2) the unit costs were reasonable; and (3) technical problems were resolved. GAO found several different situations which resulted in the services' requesting more funding than needed, such as: (1) production backlogs; (2) cost changes for ammunition items and major components; (3) cost projection problems; (4) scheduling problems; and (5) facility design problems. GAO concluded that about $1.1 billion of the funds requested for ammunition items and $129.2 million of the funds requested for ammunition production facilities should not be provided for in the fiscal year 1986 budget because: (1) on-hand inventories and undelivered funded quantities were sufficient to meet the military's needs; (2) unit cost estimates were overstated; (3) part or all of the quantities requested could not be delivered within the budget year program timeframes; and (4) the requests were premature because of technical problems.
