GAO Report in PDF Format Air Force: Assessment of DOD's Report on Plan and Capabilities for Evaluating Heavy Bombers (Letter Report, 01/10/94, GAO/NSIAD-94-99). The Defense Department (DOD) is required to assess the effectiveness of the B-52H and B-1B bombers in conventional missions and to report on its ability to flight-test these bombers against a variety of current and future threats. GAO found that DOD's plan offers little insight into how the key issues involving the B-1B will be addressed. According to the plan, the effectiveness of heavy bombers in conventional warfare will depend on mission planning and the ability of the bombers to deploy, perform long-duration sorties, penetrate air defenses, and employ conventional weapons. Pentagon officials made a conscious decision to not include all the detail necessary to address the key issues raised in the plan about the B-1B. They view the plan as a top-level guidance document in which more detail would have been inappropriate. GAO believes that of the key issues identified in the plan, deployability is particularly critical. Resolving this issue would allow more-informed decisions on upgrading the B-1B bomber and defining future conventional roles of the B-52 and the B-2 aircraft. The plan concludes that although DOD can design realistic flight tests to determine the survivability and the operational effectiveness of proposed modifications to the B-1B and the B-52H aircraft, the design will not duplicate all known threats. DOD attributes this limitation to the lack of advanced threat air defense systems in the test resources inventory and to the vast number of possible threat postures and configurations. --------------------------- Indexing Terms ----------------------------- REPORTNUM: NSIAD-94-99 TITLE: Air Force: Assessment of DOD's Report on Plan and Capabilities for Evaluating Heavy Bombers DATE: 01/10/94 SUBJECT: Operations analysis Defense operations Testing Bomber aircraft Defense contingency planning Defense capabilities Air defense systems Tactical air forces Advanced weapons systems IDENTIFIER: B-52H Aircraft B-1B Aircraft B-52 Aircraft B-2 Aircraft Desert Storm ************************************************************************ See the GAO FAQ - Section 2.0 for printed copy ordering information. The FAQ is automatically retrieved with all WAIS search results or can be obtained by sending e-mail to: info@www.gao.gov
