Summary: In response to a congressional request, GAO examined alternatives to the current Department of Defense method for determining the priority for allocating equipment to the reserve components to determine if there is a way to achieve a higher rate of readiness through the distribution of new equipment.
At present, the Army Master Priority List (DAMPL) establishes an order of precedence for the allocation of resources during peacetime and the early days of mobilization and deployment. GAO found that: (1) the two alternatives which it developed would help more units immediately increase their readiness and would cost less than the DAMPL process; (2) equipping units in DAMPL sequence does not ensure that the earlier deploying units will be the first to be equipped; (3) the alternatives provide a distinct improvement in readiness; (4) the Army should be able to implement the alternatives without causing major changes in operational plans; (5) the alternatives would involve a modification of the DAMPL process and procedures, not a replacement of the DAMPL system; (6) because each alternative only considers equipping units of the same type, they cannot be used to establish priorities between different types of units; (7) there could be a need to change the wartime alignment of some reserve units to correct obvious mismatches between a unit's readiness status and its assigned mission and deployment date; and (8) because the unit status report rating does not identify units which are using substitute equipment rather than required new equipment, some units' relative equipment status is incorrect.
