GAO-17-582, Accessible Version, OPERATIONAL SUPPORT .
United States Government Accountability OfficeReport to Congressional AddresseesJune 2017OPERATIONALSUPPORT AIRLIFTFleet Sufficiency isAssessed AnnuallyAccessible VersionGAO-17-582
June 2017OPERATIONAL SUPPORT AIRLIFTFleet Sufficiency is Assessed AnnuallyHighlights of GAO-17-582, a report tocongressional addresseesWhy GAO Did This StudyWhat GAO FoundOSA missions support the movementof a limited number of high-prioritypassengers and cargo with time, place,or mission-sensitive requirements.DOD’s OSA aircraft are variants ofcommercial aircraft. OSA aircraft arecategorized as either executive (usedto transport DOD, congressional, andcabinet officials) or non-executive(used to fulfill wartime or contingencyneeds). As of May 2017, DOD had 287OSA aircraft—44 executive and 243non-executive—about 6 percent ofDOD’s airlift/cargo/utility aircraft.In calendar years 2014 and 2015, government officials took thousands of flightson Operational Support Airlift (OSA) executive aircraft, and our review of anongeneralizable sample of 53 flight packages found that those trips generallyfollowed Department of Defense (DOD) guidance for requesting the use ofgovernment aircraft. DOD requires its officials in certain positions to fly onmilitary aircraft, including OSA executive aircraft. It also authorizes, but does notrequire, officials in other government positions to fly on OSA executive aircraft.We analyzed the use of OSA executive aircraft during 2014 and 2015—the latestyears for which data were available—and found that of the 19,752 executiveflights conducted, 31 percent supported required users and 69 percent supportedother authorized users. The Vice President, the First Lady, and other cabinetlevel officials on White House support mission trips accounted for about 12percent of the flights, and members of congress and congressional employeesaccounted for about 5 percent of the flights. DOD guidance requiresdocumentation for each flight request including the rank or position of thetraveler, itinerary, and in some cases, cost data. While not generalizable beyondthese flights, our review of 53 flight request packages found that the packagesgenerally contained most required documentation. Although some packageswere missing items, we discussed those items with DOD officials, and we did notfind evidence to suggest the requested flight should have been disapproved.House Report 114-537 and SenateReport 114-255 included provisions forGAO to review the use and size of theOSA fleet. This report examines theextent to which DOD (1) used OSAexecutive aircraft in 2014 and 2015,and if this usage complied withguidance; and (2) has a process tovalidate its OSA fleet size. GAOreviewed DOD guidance for approvingthe use of OSA aircraft, analyzed themost current executive aircraft flightdata available—calendar years 2014and 2015—and compared the approvaldocumentation from a sample of thoseflights to DOD’s guidance. GAO alsoreviewed documentation andinterviewed officials to assess DOD’sOSA validation process and results.Figure: C-20 Operational Support AirliftWhat GAO RecommendsGAO is not making anyrecommendations in this report. DODprovided technical comments on adraft of this report, which GAOincorporated as appropriate.View GAO-17-582. For more information,contact Zina D. Merritt at (202) 512-5257 ormerrittz@gao.gov.In recent years, DOD has implemented a consistent process to validate the sizeof its OSA fleet and to have a risk assessment of the fleet’s ability to meetrequirements all 365 days per year. In 2016, for example, the executive fleet’srisk-to-mission accomplishment was assessed as moderate, and the nonexecutive fleet’s risk-to-mission was assessed as low. The services do notgenerally use the validation process determinations as a basis for OSA aircraftprocurement and divestment decisions. According to service officials, thosedecisions are based on separate, independent evaluations of their force structureneeds, which evaluate the age and maintenance conditions of their aircraft, andthe need to balance OSA aircraft requirements against other service priorities.United States Government Accountability Office
ContentsLetter1BackgroundExecutive Aircraft Supported Thousands of Annual Flights for aVariety of Users and for Select Flights DOD Generally FollowedIts Guidance for Approving UseDOD Recently Implemented an Annual OSA Validation ProcessAgency Comments3101622Appendix I: Operational Support Airlift (OSA) Mishap Data24Appendix II: Information on Maintenance of Operational Support Airlift (OSA)26Appendix III: Scope and Methodology29Appendix IV: Description and Pictures of Operational Support Airlift (OSA) Aircraft32Appendix V: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgements41TablesTable 1: Department of Defense Operational Support Airlift (as ofMay 2017)Table 2: Department of Defense Executive Aircraft Home Bases(as of May 2017)Table 3: Government Aircraft Approval AuthoritiesTable 4: Users of the Department of Defense (DOD) AircraftTable 5: Number of Executive Flights Operated by the Departmentof Defense (DOD), Calendar Years 2014-2015Table 6: Service Secretary Controlled Executive Aircraft Use,Calendar Years 2014-2015Table 7: Operational Support Airlift (OSA) ValidationMemorandums, 2013-2016Table 8: Operational Support Airlift Risk Matrix (Number of dayswhen the department expects to be able to fill all requiredmissions)Table 9: Operational Support Airlift Mishaps (Fiscal Years 20072016)25Page i446711131920GAO-17-582 Operational Support Airlift
Table 10: Air Force Operational Support Airlift Availability andAge, Fiscal Year 2016Table 11: Army Operational Support Airlift Availability and Age,Fiscal Year 2016Table 12: Navy Operational Support Airlift Mission Capable Ratesand Age, Fiscal Year 2016Table 13: Population of Flights for GAO’s Initial Sample Selectionand Initial Sample AllocationTable 14: C-9 AircraftTable 15: C-12 AircraftTable 16: C-20 B/H AircraftTable 17: C-21AircraftTable 18: C-26 AircraftTable 19: C-32Table 20: C-37A/B AircraftTable 21: C-40B/C AircraftTable 22: UC-35 Aircraft27272830323334353637383940FiguresFigure 1: Checklist for Approving the Use of Operational SupportAirlift Executive FlightsaFigure 2: Department of Defense Operational Support AirliftValidation ProcessFigure 3: C-9 AircraftFigure 4: C-12 AircraftFigure 5: C-20 B/H AircraftFigure 6: C-21AircraftFigure 7: C-26 AircraftFigure 8: C-32 AircraftFigure 9: C-37A/B AircraftFigure 10: C-40B/C AircraftFigure 11: UC-35 mbatant CommandersDODDepartment of DefenseOSAOperational Support AirliftGAOU.S. Government Accountability OfficePage iiGAO-17-582 Operational Support Airlift
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441 G St. N.W.Washington, DC 20548LetterJune 28, 2017Congressional Addressees:The Department of Defense (DOD) describes Operational Support Airlift(OSA) missions as a special category of airlift missions that involve themovement of a limited number of high-priority passengers and cargo withtime, place, or mission-sensitive requirements.1 OSA missions can beperformed by a wide variety of aircraft, but DOD generally describes itsOSA aircraft fleet in terms of two groups, its executive aircraft and itsnonexecutive aircraft. Executive aircraft provide air transportation forfederal and DOD-approved senior leaders, and are configured to supporttravel when other aircraft do not provide the timeliness, security,communications capability, or workspace required. Executive aircraftmissions include transporting the Vice President, senior DOD officialssuch as the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs ofStaff, cabinet, other high-ranking executive branch officials, and membersof Congress.2 Nonexecutive aircraft are used to fulfill wartimerequirements, contingency operations, domestic support missions, andday-to-day activities. As of May 2017, DOD had 287 OSA aircraft—44executive and 243 nonexecutive aircraft, which is a small portion ofDOD’s overall aircraft inventory. In fiscal year 2017, DOD operated 4,517total aircraft in the airlift/cargo/utility category, which includes OSA aircraftaccording to DOD’s Annual Aviation Inventory and Funding Plan. In fiscalyear 2016, DOD had allocated more than 890 million to operate andmaintain its OSA aircraft, according to budget documents.House Report 114-537 and Senate Report 114-255 accompanyingproposed bills for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year2017 included provisions for us to review aspects of DOD’s managementof OSA aircraft, including the utilization of the aircraft and the validation ofits fleet size.3 This report examines the extent to which: (1) DOD usedOSA executive aircraft in 2014 and 2015 and the usage for select flights1DOD Instruction 4500.43, Operational Support Airlift (OSA) (May 18, 2011)(incorporatingchange 1, June 26, 2013).2OSA does not include travel by the President, who travels on the VC-25A (Boeing 747)aircraft designated as Air Force One when the President is onboard.3H.R. Rep. No. 114-537, at 212 (2016); S. Rep. No. 114-255, at 288 (2016). In addition,the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is a co-requester for our reviewin response to the Senate report provision.Page 1GAO-17-582 Operational Support Airlift
Lettercomplied with guidance; and (2) DOD has a process to validate its OSAfleet size. Additionally, we provide information on OSA aircraft mishaps inappendix I, and maintenance-related information in appendix II.For objective one, we identified and reviewed DOD’s and its components’guidance related to the use of executive aircraft.4 We obtained the mostcurrent data available—calendar year 2014 and 2015 executive aircraftflight data—from both the Joint Staff and the military services. We thenanalyzed the data to identify the portions of the total flights that supportedvarious categories of DOD and non-DOD travelers. We also analyzed thecalendar year 2014 and 2015 flight data by type of aircraft used. We alsoselected a nongeneralizable, random sample of 53 executive OSA flightsand compared the documentation in the flight request packages to theflight package documentation requirements listed in DOD’s OSAguidance.5 We concluded that the data provided by the Joint Staff and themilitary services were sufficiently reliable for the purposes of our reportingobjectives by interviewing each group respectively about their databasesused to enter and maintain flight data. Additionally, we interviewedofficials from the Joint Staff, U.S. Transportation Command, the militaryservices, the Office of the Secretary of Defense Executive Secretary, andthe Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs anddiscussed their roles in approving the use of executive aircraft.For objective two, we gathered documentation on DOD’s annual OSAvalidation process. The documentation we reviewed included DODguidance, meeting minutes, briefings, and a methodology paper. We alsoanalyzed the results of the OSA fleet validation process. We reviewedand analyzed the OSA fleet validation memorandums—issued annuallysince 2014—from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the4Key guidance includes: DOD Directive 4500.56, DOD Policy on the Use of GovernmentAircraft (Apr. 14, 2009)(incorporating change 3, June 24, 2014); DOD Instruction 4500.43,Operational Support Airlift (OSA) (May 18, 2011)(incorporating change 1, June 26, 2013);and DOD Directive 4515.12, DOD Support for Travel of Members and Employees ofCongress, (Jan. 15, 2010).Since the use of executive aircraft is not tied to traditionaltraining or operational needs, we focused our first objective on how these aircraft wereused and the extent to which this usage complied with the guidance DOD established fortheir use.5The randomly identified 53 flight request packages are not generalizable to the 19,752executive flights conducted during calendar years 2014 and 2015, but instead representonly the 53 flight packages examined. Additionally, the sample does not cover anycongressional user or Combatant Command flights, as those flight packages wereunavailable for review, and therefore not part of the scope of this sample. Please seeAppendix III for details.Page 2GAO-17-582 Operational Support Airlift
LetterSecretary of Defense. We also interviewed officials from the militaryservices, Joint Staff, the U.S. Transportation Command, and a privatecontractor who supported the OSA validation process, to determine theirroles in the annual validation process and to identify how the processresults are used. We also discussed the basis for OSA force structuredecisions with officials from the military services. Appendix III provides amore detailed description of our scope and methodology.We conducted this performance audit from June 2016 to June 2017 inaccordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtainsufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for ourfindings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe thatthe evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings andconclusions based on our audit objectives.BackgroundOverview of OSA AircraftAccording to DOD, there were 287 aircraft in the OSA fleet as of May2017. All OSA aircraft are military variants of commercial aircraft. (Seeappendix IV for more information and images of these aircraft.) Table 1lists the number of OSA aircraft by DOD owner/operator and type ofusage.Page 3GAO-17-582 Operational Support Airlift
LetterTable 1: Department of Defense Operational Support Airlift (as of May 2017)AirForceExecutiveAircraftNavyU.S. 43a287Source: GAO analysis of Department of Defense documents. I GAO-17-582aIncludes one contract aircraft for U.S. Africa CommandA majority of the executive aircraft is located at Joint Base Andrews,Maryland, and a small number are located overseas, as shown in table 2.Table 2: Department of Defense Executive Aircraft Home Bases (as of May 2017)LocationAir ForceArmyNavyTotal186327Ramstein AirBase, Germany5005Scott Air ForceBase, Illinois4004MacDill Air ForceBase, Florida3003Joint Base PearlHarbor-Hickam,Hawaii2114Naval Air StationSigonella, Italy0011327544Joint BaseAndrews,MarylandTotalSource: GAO summary of Department of Defense information. I GAO-17-582Thirteen of the 44 executive aircraft are designated as service secretarycontrolled aircraft. The primary mission for these 13 aircraft is to transportthe military departments’ Secretaries, Chiefs of Staff, and other seniorofficials such as the Undersecretaries and Vice Chiefs of Staff.6 Service6All of the Army and Navy OSA executive aircraft are service secretary controlled aircraft.One of the Air Force’s OSA executive aircraft is a service secretary controlled aircraft.However, unlike the other services, the Air Force also has service secretary controlledaircraft in its OSA nonexecutive fleet—four C-21 aircraft. None of the services’ eleven,large C-40 executive aircraft are service secretary controlled aircraft.Page 4GAO-17-582 Operational Support Airlift
Lettersecretary controlled aircraft also support travel for members of congressand for White House support missions7, including for cabinet-levelofficials. In addition, 9 of the 44 executive aircraft are designated for useby the Commanders of the Combatant Commands.As of May 2017, the Army owned and operated 121 of the 243nonexecutive aircraft. U.S. Africa Command leased one aircraft, and theremaining 121 aircraft belonged to the U.S. Special OperationsCommand, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force, which respectively owned21, 25, 33, and 42 aircraft. Of the Air Forces’ 42 nonexecutive aircraft, 18were designated for Defense Intelligence Agency or Defense SecurityCooperation Agency support to overseas locations.Approval Authorities for the Use of Government Aircraftand Air TravelMultiple officials have responsibilities for approving the use of governmentaircraft and air travel. Specifically, the Secretaries of the MilitaryDepartments, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and CombatantCommanders review and approve requests within their respectivecommands. In addition, the Office of the Secretary of Defense ExecutiveSecretary and the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairsprioritize and approve requests within their approval authorities. Table 3summarizes the responsibilities for approving requests for use ofgovernment aircraft.7White House support missions are trips provided by DOD and directed by the Presidentsuch as travel for cabinet-level officials, the Vice-President, and First Lady.Page 5GAO-17-582 Operational Support Airlift
LetterTable 3: Government Aircraft Approval AuthoritiesApproval AuthorityResponsibilitiesAssistant Secretary ofDefense for Legislative AffairsApproves and prioritizes all requests for congressional air travel, except for transportation within theapproval authority of the Secretaries of the Military Departments, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs ofStaff, and the CCDRsExecutive Secretary of theDepartment of DefenseApproves transportation requests for all non-Department of Defense officials and all Department ofDefense senior officials within the Office of Secretary of Defense and the Defense agencies, exceptfor those requests delegated to the Secretaries of the military departments, the Chairman of the JointChiefs of Staff, and the CCDRsSecretaries of the MilitaryDepartmentsReviews and approves government air requests from within their respective departmentsChairman of the Joint Chiefsof StaffApproves requests for transportation for members assigned to the Joint StaffCombatant Commanders(CCDRs)Reviews and approves government air requests from Department of Defense senior officials withintheir respective commandsApproves transportation of foreign officials on Department of Defense operational support airlift, fortravel within the CCDRs overseas area of accreditation or responsibility and on a non-interferencebasisSource: GAO analysis of Department of Defense Directive 4500.56. I GAO-17-582Required and Authorized UsersDOD guidance sets clear priorities for the use of its aircraft to supportofficials in certain positions within the department. Specifically, theguidance lists 26 required DOD users and 35 authorized DOD users ofgovernment aircraft8 who are categorized into four tiers. DOD’s highestpriority (tier one) travelers are required to use government aircraft for bothofficial and unofficial travel while tier two travelers are required to usegovernment aircraft only for official travel.9 The Secretary of Defenseprioritizes tier one and tier two officials as travelers that are required touse government aircraft because there is a continuous requirement forsecure communications; a threat exists that could endanger lives; or thereis a need to satisfy exceptional scheduling requirements that makecommercial transportation unacceptable. DOD’s tier three and four8DOD Directive 4500.56, DOD Policy on the Use of Government Aircraft (Apr. 14,2009)(incorporating change 3, June 24, 2014). While DOD’s policy documents applybroadly to travel on government aircraft that include both OSA executive and nonexecutive aircraft, as well as non-OSA military aircraft, the first objective in this reportpresents statistics that focus only on the OSA executive fleet of aircraft.9Official travel is defined as travel for official government b
of Defense (DOD), Calendar Years 2014-2015 11 Table 6: Service Secretary Controlled Executive Aircraft Use, Calendar Years 2014-2015 13 Table 7: Operational Support Airlift (OSA) Validation Memorandums, 2013-2016 19 Table 8: Operational Support Airlift Risk Matrix (Number of days when the department expects to be able to fill all required
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