The Government Accountability Office is calling on the Department of Defense to issue guidance that would instruct combatant commands to identify training resource needs when proposing a security assistance package for Ukraine.
Training Disruptions
GAO said in a report released Tuesday that the measure would help DOD avoid problems that might disrupt associated training being provided to Ukraine in response to Russia’s invasion. According to the report, training disruptions were experienced due to insufficient training equipment, limited time to prepare for training, insufficient resources to repair training equipment and mismatches between the expertise of U.S. trainers and the training needs of Ukrainian forces.
Problems With Data Collection
The report also flagged DOD for deficiencies in the data it collected following the trainings. On one hand, training reports do not capture enough data to cover all the objectives of a given training, it said. On the other hand, the data that is required is sometimes not provided by units conducting the training. Just as critically, training data collection methods tended to change with each new training unit.
Documentation and Information Sharing
Data collection is key to assessing trends and identifying areas for improvement. In response to the challenges, GAO recommended that training assessment processes be properly documented. The office also recommended that relevant training observations be captured and shared via the Joint Lessons Learned Information System, a process mandated by DOD policy but which was not consistently applied or even reflected in the implementing orders for the training.
