Air Force Organization More Assessment Needed Before Implementing Force Projection Composite Wings

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO evaluated the Air Force's decision to implement force projection composite wings at three Air Force bases to determine whether these wings: (1) can achieve expected advantages; and (2) create adverse effects. GAO found that: (1) the Air Force did not conduct sufficient analyses before deciding to build force projection composite wings at three Air Force bases (AFB) in the United States; (2) the advantages attributed to force projection composite wings can be achieved without permanent collection of aircraft at AFB; (3) the Air Force has relied on analogies as justification for force projection composite wings, but the analogies do not support establishing the wings as permanent peacetime organizations; (4) the Air Force has not established clear criteria for the concept of force projection composite wings or for judging the validity of the concept; (5) the estimated construction cost for the wings is approximately $200 million; (6) force projection composite wings will have significant limitations, since they must be augmented by aircraft from other bases in order to perform peacetime and wartime tasks; (7) training facilities at Mountain Home and Pope AFB are too small to support force-level training; and (8) the Air Force might have avoided some implementation difficulties if it had evaluated alternative bases before determining the locations for the wings.