FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found The Department of Defense (DOD) does not request full funding of identified needs for installation maintenance or major improvement projects for facilities. This shortage has led to an estimated $285 billion of maintenance backlogs in fiscal year 2025. Due to competing budget priorities, DOD set a goal to fund 90 percent of its maintenance needs, but GAO found that the military services continue to fall short of this goal by funding about 80 percent of these needs. DOD has not fully determined the risks to its mission and to the quality of life of its personnel as a result of not meeting its funding goal. Fully determining and communicating these risks would provide better in.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found As of August 2026, EXIM was not monitoring the end use of any dual-use export because all such transactions had been repaid in full. EXIM did not finance any new exports under its dual-use authority in fiscal year 2025, according to EXIM authorization data and EXIM officials. Why GAO Did This Study The mission of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) is to help support American jobs by facilitating the export of U.S. goods and services and financing imports. In 1994, Congress passed legislation authorizing EXIM to facilitate the financing of U.S. exports of defense articles and services with both civilian and military applications, provided that the bank determin.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found Five Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) teams are implementing the security cooperation workforce provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024. Of the 66 provisions in the law we identified and reviewed, the agency has completed work on 46, is in progress on 15, and has not started implementing the remaining five. DSCA expects to complete work on all security cooperation workforce provisions in fiscal year 2028. For example: The Human Capital Initiative has completed work on 23 provisions and is in progress on 11 provisions. For example, the team has completed the provision to identify and code security cooperation workforce positions. It..
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found The Department of Defense (DOD) and its components—relevant DOD offices and the military departments (Army, Navy, and Air Force)—are taking steps to prevent and mitigate the brain health effects of blast exposure. In 2024, DOD established several blast overpressure requirements, including one requiring that brain health be monitored. Specifically, this requires that all high-risk active duty service members complete a baseline cognitive assessment in fiscal year 2025 and all new service members complete one during initial military training. DOD also required tracking service members’ exposures to blast overpressure. As of fiscal year 2025, components have begun to implement t.
FEDE Office of the Federal Register / National Archives and Records Administration · Rulemaking audits
Transportation Department, Federal Aviation Administration | Proposed Rule | FAA proposes to amend regulations to extend the existing exception for U.S. military pilots from the requirement to hold an FAA third-class medical certificate to military pilot trainees who already meet U.S. military pilot medical examination requirements. FAA has determined that U.S. military pilot medical examinations meet or exceed the level of safety established by FAA third-class medical certificate standards. Therefore, it is redundant to require military pilot trainees to meet both standards. The proposed rule would support streamlining the U.S. military use of civilian flight schools. The intended effects..
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found The Department of Defense (DOD) uses international agreements and arrangements to achieve political, economic, and military objectives. For example, these could include cooperatively developing and producing a military system with a foreign partner. From fiscal years 2021 through 2025, DOD established 303 acquisition-related international arrangements with an associated dollar value of $64 billion. However, both the number and dollar value of these arrangements declined over this period. DOD officials said that factors like personnel shortages and lengthy review and approval timelines contributed to this decline. Decline in DOD International Arrangements, Fiscal Years (FY) 20.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found In May 2025, GAO identified 79 priority recommendations for the Department of Defense. Since then, the Department has implemented 17 of those recommendations. In June 2026, GAO identified an additional seven priority recommendations and removed the priority designation from 16 recommendations, bringing the total to 53 priority recommendations. GAO is highlighting the following three areas that warrant timely and focused attention: Sustaining U.S. military readiness, Ensuring weapon system acquisition and modernization, and Improving financial and fraud risk management. Addressing GAO's recommendations in these areas would support combat readiness by maintaining the Department.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found Ten of the 13 B-52 modernizations are experiencing cost, schedule, or performance challenges. The Air Force’s most expensive B-52 modernization effort, the Commercial Engine Replacement Program (CERP) will likely continue to face significant challenges as the Air Force plans to begin production with little to no developmental flight testing. While the Air Force analyzed and accepted increased risks from this approach in 2023, since then CERP costs increased by about $3 billion and initial operational capability was delayed more than 15 months. Department of Defense (DOD) policy states cost estimates should consider risk and include an analysis that identifies and evaluates al.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found The Individual Longitudinal Exposure Record (ILER) is a web application that links service members’ and veterans’ military toxic exposures and related information from Department of Defense (DOD) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) databases. DOD and VA intend ILER to be a multi-purpose tool to support clinicians in providing diagnoses and treatment decisions, researchers in conducting health surveillance and epidemiological research, and Veterans Benefit Administration (VBA) claims benefits staff in processing disability claims. Use of the ILER web application among DOD and VA staff increased after the Honoring our PACT Act of 2022 (PACT Act) was enacted in August 2022...
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found The Navy is currently 24 months behind in its efforts to modernize three DDG 1000 Zumwalt class destroyers to host the Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) hypersonic missile as part of its surface strike mission. Both the DDG 1000 and CPS efforts face challenges: Although modernization of the first ship in the class, USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000), was 94 percent complete as of January 2026, it is behind schedule due to unplanned work. The DDG 1000 class ships have unique systems, such as its radar, combat, and network systems, that are costly and difficult to sustain and maintain. The CPS effort was originally scheduled to begin flight testing on the DDG 1000 class in 2025 but this is..
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found The Space Force is the smallest military service, with about 15,400 total personnel in fiscal year 2025. The Space Force largely inherited its workforce from other services and has completed some assessments as it seeks to right-size its force to meet growing missions. However, it determines personnel requirements based on a mix of analyses that are not consistent across Space Force units. Further, some units operate under personnel requirements that are outdated and do not reflect mission growth. The Space Force has not established a process or guidance to consistently and accurately determine its personnel needs to accomplish its missions. Relatedly, although it has estimat.
FEDE U.S. Government Accountability Office · Audits audits
What GAO Found In 2023, the Department of Defense (DOD) directed the military departments—Army, Navy, and Air Force—to update their policies on clinical quality management to align with Defense Health Agency (DHA) procedures to ensure high-quality care in operational settings. In December 2024, GAO reported that the military departments had not yet issued policies, specifically on provider credentialing and privileging, and recommended that they do so. As of March 2026, GAO found that Army and Air Force had not issued updated policies, while Navy issued several policies on aspects of clinical quality management. GAO maintains that the military departments’ updates to these policies will fac.
