Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have faced significant risks of mission failure and loss of life due to rapidly changing enemy threats. In response, DoD established urgent operational needs processes to rapidly develop, modify, and field new capabilities, such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance tech'y., and counterimprovised explosive devices systems. This review determined: (1) what DoD entities exist for responding to urgent operational needs, and the extent to which there is fragmentation, overlap, or duplication; (2) the extent to which DoD has a comprehensive approach for managing and overseeing its urgent needs activities; and (3) has DoD evaluated the potential for consolidations. Illus. This is a print on demand report.

Contractors provide a broad range of support to U.S. forces deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, with the number of contractors at times exceeding the number of military personnel in each country. The DoD has acknowledged shortcomings in how the role of contractors was addressed in its planning for Iraq and Afghanistan. This report assesses DoD's development of contract support plans. It examines: (1) what progress DoD has made in developing operational contract support annexes for its operation plans; (2) the extent to which contract requirements are included in other sections of operation plans; and (3) DoD's progress in establishing a long-term capability to include operational contract support requirements in operation plans. Charts and tables.

Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have faced rapidly changing threats to mission failure or loss of life, highlighting the DoD¿s need to develop and field new capabilities more quickly than its usual acquisition procedures allow. Since 2006, Congress has provided nearly $16 billion to counter improvised explosive devices alone. There have been funding, organizational, acquisition, and oversight issues involving DoD's processes for meeting warfighters' urgent needs. This report determined: (1) the extent to which DoD has a means to assess the effectiveness of its urgent needs processes; and (2) what challenges, if any, have affected the overall responsiveness of DoD's urgent needs processes. This review conducted 23 case studies. Illustrations.

This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. Discusses the challenges the DoD faces in institutionalizing operational contract support throughout the Dept. The institutionalization of operational contract support includes planning for the use of contractors, training of military personnel on the use of contractor support, accurately tracking contractor use, and establishing measures to ensure that contractors are accountable. This statement focuses on the extent to which DoD has institutionalized operational contract support. It is based on recently published reports and testimonies that examined planning for operational contract support and DoD's efforts to manage and oversee contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. Illustrations.

The DoD relies greatly on contractors to support its current operations and is likely to continue to depend on contractors in support of future operations. As of Dec. 2009, DoD estimated that over 207,000 contractor personnel were supporting operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. DoD expects to increase the number of contractors as more troops deploy to Afghanistan. This testimony addresses: (1) the challenges DoD faces when trying to provide management and oversight of contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan; and (2) the extent to which DoD has made progress in institutionalizing a department-wide approach to managing and overseeing operational contract support. Charts and tables.

In FY 2009, the DoD spent $4 billion to move troops and materiel into Afghanistan, a mountainous, arid, land-locked country with few roads, no railway, and only four airports. In Dec. 2009, the Pres. announced that an additional 30,000 U.S. troops will be sent to Afghanistan by August 2010. This testimony reviews DoD's logistics efforts supporting operations in Afghanistan, including: (1) the org. involved and routes and methods used to transport supplies and equip. into and around Afghanistan; (2) steps DoD has taken to improve its distribution process, based on lessons learned from prior operations; and (3) challenges affecting DoD's ability to distribute supplies and equipment within Afghanistan, and its efforts to mitigate them. Illustrations.

This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. Improvised explosive devices (IED) are the number-one threat to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, accounting for almost 40% of the attacks on coalition forces in Iraq. Although insurgents' use of IEDs in Iraq has begun to decline, in Afghanistan the number of IED incidents has significantly increased. The Joint IED Defeat Org. (JIEDDO) was created to lead and coordinate all DoD efforts to defeat IEDs. Its primary role is to provide funding to the military services to rapidly develop and field counter-IED solutions. The auditor is recommending that JIEDDO: (1) improve its visibility of counter-IED efforts across DoD; (2) develop a complete plan to guide the transition of initiatives; and (3) define criteria for its training initiatives to help guide its funding decisions. Illustrations.