US Army, Marines Collide on Cost Assessments for Weapons Repairs - GAO
06:27 23.06.2015(updated 08:29 23.06.2015)
The US Army and Marines do not know how much it costs them to repair heavy military equipment like artillery, because they make different and contrasting costing assumptions, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report released.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The GAO defined reset liability estimates as the amount of funding that may be required by a service to repair, recapitalize and replace equipment returning from operations.
However, the military services apply that definition to different categories of equipment, and calculate reset liability over different time periods, the report noted.
"The Marine Corps and Army has each developed its own process for producing reset liability estimates … thereby returning the equipment to combat ready condition," the report said on Monday. "[T]here is no Department of Defense guidance for the services to use as they produce their reset liability estimates."
In Fiscal Year 2014, the Marine Corps estimated the unit repair cost for a single 155mm heavy artillery howitzer at $311,090, assuming the howitzer would return in worst case condition, the GAO said.
But the Army estimated the unit repair cost to be $246,778 by applying historical information, the GAO added.
"Marine Corps' reset liability estimate covers all fiscal years until reset is complete while the Army estimate covers a two-year period, even though reset may not be completed within those two fiscal years," the report said.
Such process differences result in reset liability estimates that are not comparable, it noted.
© Sputnik
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