GAO Suggests EOD Needs to Improve Forces Planning

Washington, D.C. GAO released a report titled "Actions Needed to Improve Explosive Ordnance Disposal Forces Planning" which documents their assessment of EOD's Forces Planning effort. The GAO assessment examined the effects of non-combat related duties on military preparedness. The report suggests that EOD readiness is degraded as EOD forces have experienced an increase in defense support of civil authority (DSCA) taskings such as VIP support.

The report found that VIP support missions--increased from about 248,000 man-hours in 2007 to over 690,000 man-hours in fiscal years 2017. In addition, other EOD DSCA duties such as assisting civilian law enforcement and rendering safe military munitions as requested by civil authorities also take time away from EOD's ability to complete it's military mission.

In interviews Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine EOD Officials, GAO found that none of the services account for DSCA missions in their man-power planning requirements. GAO recommends that DoD: "(1) update the appropriate service guidance to ensure that all EOD missions, including DSCA missions, are considered in determining the required number of EOD forces," and "(2) incorporate into appropriate guidance a requirement for the military services to notify the Joint Staff and combatant commands when VIP support missions negatively affect the military preparedness of EOD units."

Downloaded the GAO report from UXOInfo.com.