The Fundamentals of Military Readiness
Each year the Department of Defense (DOD) requests and Congress authorizes and appropriates billions of dollars in Operations and Maintenance (O&M) funding to support what the DOD calls readiness. Additionally, other types of defense appropriations may be used to contribute to producing, sustaining, or otherwise enabling readiness. DOD defines readiness as “the ability of military forces to fight and meet the demands of assigned missions.” What precisely this means is a matter of ongoing discourse among congressional leaders and defense officials alike.
Despite disagreement over specific definitions of readiness, DOD retains statutory authorities and responsibilities to produce and sustain ready military forces, and Congress has the constitutional authority to resource and regulate military forces for the nation. For these reasons, many government officials and members of the defense community agree that the focus of readiness is to generate “ready” military forces. The process of generating these forces is complex, and differs across a range of various circumstances (e.g., a branch of armed service, military occupation, the status of a servicemember [commissioned officer, warrant officer, or enlisted], and duty type/component [i.e., active or reserve]). Nonetheless, the military’s overall “readiness production process” can be broadly described in terms of producing and sustaining ready military units over time, with the principal focus within these units being the “warfighter” (i.e., the servicemember).
This report applies the analogy of a production line to explain the process. The readiness production process includes three fundamental parts:
- Building initial readiness. This includes providing initial training and testing along with proper resourcing so that warfighters can progress to advanced training.
- Increasing readiness. This includes providing advanced individual and unit training, testing, and proper resourcing, so that warfighters are qualified and resourced to deploy with their operational units.
- Sustaining readiness. This includes the continual training and resourcing of units, prior to and following deployments, in order to ensure units remain ready for future assigned missions.
Related to the readiness production process are the assessment and reporting of military readiness. This report includes an overview of selected readiness systems, assessments, and sample metrics used to inform military and congressional leaders. These include
- the Defense Readiness Reporting System (DRRS);
- the Chairman’s Readiness System (CRS);
- the Quarterly Readiness Report to Congress (QRRC);
- Mission Capable (MC) rates; and
- Aircraft Availability (AA) rates.
DOD has stated that readiness is principally funded through Operations and Maintenance (O&M) appropriations provided annually by Congress. For FY2021, DOD requested approximately $290 billion in O&M funding, amounting to approximately 41% of the department’s overall discretionary budget request. In addition, both DOD and Congress have acknowledged that other types of appropriations may also be used to contribute to readiness. An important consideration for Congress is the oversight of readiness funding. Another potential consideration for Congress is the establishment of common readiness metrics across DOD. Common metrics based upon a common lexicon would allow for a more accurate comparison of unit readiness across the Services.
by G. James Herrera Analyst in U.S. Defense Readiness and Infrastructure
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