The Government Accountability Office has found that while the Department of Defense made progress in implementing recommendations for improving its nuclear program reviews, the department is yet to deploy key tracking tools to ensure transparency.
GAO said in a report published Thursday that the DoD has implemented recommendations stemming from its 2014 and 2015 reviews encompassing nuclear enterprise and nuclear command, control and communications efforts.
However, the watchdog said the DoD must provide current and complete information on progress updates including new completion dates and item delivery schedules. The department’s current guidance does not have specific requirements on ensuring that tracking information is up to date, GAO noted.
In addition, the agency said that the DoD is “struggling to sustain and maintain” legacy nuclear systems such as the Ohio-class submarines.
According to GAO, the DoD must address its reporting and tracking issues to completely and accurately visualize tasks while informing its efforts to monitor the state of its defense nuclear enterprise.
