GAO report suggests regular troops can do some commando jobs | TBO.com and The Tampa Tribune: At any given moment, thousands of commandos are on duty around the globe.
But maybe they don’t all need to be, suggests a new report by the Government Accountability Office that calls on military leaders to determine whether conventional forces can take on more jobs traditionally performed by Navy SEALs, Army Green Berets and Rangers and by Marine and Air Force special operators.
Released last week, the 72-page report comes as Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force is addressing a high rate of deployment and the strain it places on commandos who saw a record number of suicides in their ranks three years ago.
With the Pentagon looking to squeeze every penny out of its more than half-trillion dollar budget, the GAO also is recommending greater transparency in how much money the military services spend on Socom. A lack of clarity, according to the report, is making it harder to properly manage forces and funding.
The GAO report is mandated under a 2014 defense spending act.
