GAO on QDR

The Pentagon's Feb. 1 Quadrennial Defense Review report addressed many but not all of the items required by law, according to a study released today by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress. Of the 17 required reporting items, the Defense Department addressed six, partially addressed seven, and did not directly address four, GAO concludes.

"The items not directly addressed included items addressing the anticipated roles and missions of the reserve component, the advisability of revisions to the Unified Command Plan, the extent to which resources must be shifted among two or more theaters, and the appropriate ratio of combat to support forces," GAO writes. "According to DOD officials, these items were not directly addressed for a variety of reasons such as changes in the operational environment, the difficulty of briefly summarizing a large volume of data generated through the QDR analyses, or departmental plans to report on some items separately."

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Development David Ochmanek discussed the tooth-to-tail ratio in an interview with Inside the Pentagon.