https://crsreports.congress.gov
October 26, 2022
Military Readiness: DOD Assessment and Reporting
Requirements
Military readiness plays an important role in congressional
decision-making on a wide array of national security issues.
To inform its law-making and oversight activities, Congress
requires the Department of Defense (DOD) to regularly
assess and report on the readiness of the armed services.
Defining Readiness
Although readiness lacks a statutory definition, DOD’s
Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms defines it as
“the ability of military forces to fight and meet the demands
of assigned missions.” Similarly, Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff Instruction 3100.01E, Joint Strategic
Planning System, refers to readiness as the “ability of the
Joint Force to meet immediate contingency and warfighting
challenges while preparing for future challenges.”
These definitions allow for broad interpretation, but many
analysts use the term more narrowly to refer to the
capability of a given unit or weapon system to successfully
perform the specific functions for which it was designed.
Readiness, according to this usage, represents the military’s
ability to execute national strategy assuming size, structure,
and type of equipment are held constant; it can therefore be
understood largely as a function of manning and training
level (for personnel) or availability and maintenance
condition (for materiel).
This usage, however, does not encompass all the senses in
which DOD or Congress uses the term “readiness.” In
addition to the expansive definitions cited above, readiness
is also used to signify specific dimensions of preparedness
(e.g. “operational readiness,” “materiel readiness,”
“medical readiness”). For a more extensive conceptual
discussion of readiness, see CRS Report R46559, The
Fundamentals of Military Readiness.
Comprehensive Readiness
To provide a useful picture of U.S. military readiness as a
whole, Congress requires the Secretary of Defense and the
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) to assess and
report readiness across the armed services regularly.
Secretary of Defense Responsibilities
Title 10, Section 117 of the U.S. Code (U.S.C.) requires the
Secretary of Defense to establish and maintain a uniform
reporting system that measures “in an objective, accurate,
and timely manner” the military’s ability to execute the
National Security Strategy, the Defense Planning Guidance,
and the National Military Strategy. At a minimum, the
system is required to measure unit readiness, training
establishment capability, and defense infrastructure
capability, as well as any “critical warfighting
deficiencies.” It must also measure the extent to which the
military is removing parts from one vehicle, vessel, or
aircraft to render a different one operational (sometimes
referred to as ‘cannibalization’).
To meet the requirements of 10 U.S.C. §117, DOD uses the
Defense Readiness Reporting System (DRRS). DRRS
aggregates readiness information and related reporting
submitted by commanders, allowing the analysis of
resourcing and training (‘C-levels’) and mission capability
(‘Y/Q/N assessment’) of units across the services (see
Table 1).
Table 1. DRRS Readiness Ratings and Definitions
