Examines how spending on military operation and maintenance grew in the 1980s and fell in the 1990s. The study highlights changes that could be made to achieve lower levels of spending by 2002. Topics addressed include: the need to reduce operation and maintenance spending levels in the future, why defensewide spending on operation and maintenance has grown, readiness and operation and maintenance spending by the services, and strategies for reducing spending. Charts and tables.

This analysis, prepared by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) for the Defense Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, examines how O & M spending grew in the 1980s and fell in the 1990s. The study highlights changes that could be made to achieve lower levels of spending by 2002. In keeping with the CBO's mandate to provide objective analysis, the study makes no recommendations--Preface.

In this book, strategy expert Richard K. Betts surveys problems in developing and measuring combat readiness before, during, and after the cold war. He analyzes why attempts to maximize it often have counterproductive effects, and how confusions in technical concepts cause political controversy.

The "four pillars" of military capability are force structure, modernization, readiness, and sustainability. Peacetime expenditures toward achieving and maintaining readiness and sustainability-e.g., through training, maintenance, and materiel stockpiling-typically use more than half the Department of Defense's (DoD's) budget. readiness and sustainability, which reflect approximately how quickly and for how long forces would be usable, govern the degree to which the other two pillars could be exploited in wartime.