Publicly Released: May 25, 2023
The purpose of this management advisory is to inform the Department of the Army, Army Materiel Command, Army Sustainment Command, and U.S. European Command officials responsible for the designation and transfer of military equipment to the Ukrainian Armed Forces of concerns for the readiness of Army Prepositioned Stock–5 equipment. During our audit of the Army’s management of Army Prepositioned Stock–5 equipment (D2022-D000RJ-0163.000), we identified issues that resulted in unanticipated maintenance, repairs, and extended leadtimes to ensure the readiness of the military equipment selected to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Specifically, we found that 25 of 29 M1167 High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles and all six M777 howitzers were not mission ready and required repairs before the U.S. European Command could transfer the equipment to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Issues with poor maintenance and lax oversight of Army Prepositioned Stock–5 equipment could result in future delays for equipment support provided to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In addition, if U.S. forces needed this equipment, they would have encountered the same challenges. We will cover these issues in more depth in the final report we issue after completing our ongoing audit of Army Prepositioned Stock–5 equipment. We conducted the work on this management advisory with integrity, objectivity, and independence, as required by the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency’s Quality Standards for Federal Offices of Inspector General.
We are providing this final management advisory for your review and comment on the recommendations. We previously provided copies of the draft advisory and requested written comments on the recommendations. We considered management’s comments on the draft advisory when preparing this final advisory. These comments are included in the advisory.
Of the two recommendations in this advisory, we consider one resolved, and one unresolved because the Commander of the 401st Army Field Support Battalion–Kuwait did not fully address the recommendation. As discussed in the Recommendations, Management Comments, and Our Response section of this advisory, we will close the resolved Recommendation 1 when the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army, G-3/5/7 provides us with adequate documentation showing that all agreed-upon actions to implement the recommendation are completed.