This study analyzes the way the Department of Defense currently funds the Defense Transportation System (DTS). The central question that this study attempts to answer is does the current decentralized, service-centered, budgeting process optimize national mobility capabilities or would centralized budget authority, under United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM), offer greater potential for balancing mobility capabilities and requirements? To answer this question this study examines the current process employed to maintain the DTS and comparing the current system to one possible alternative: US Transportation Command Budget Authority. The study accomplishes this by first describing the objective of the budgeting process, which is to balance limited lift capabilities against demanding requirements, and follows this description of the “transportation balance” with a brief description of the DTS. The study continues with an analysis of the current process used to support the balance of this DTS. This analysis includes a study of the planning, programming, and budgeting system (PPBS) from both the Navy and Air Force perspective ...

1 INTRODUCTION . . . . 1 Notes . . . . 4 2 THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM . . . . . . 5 Notes . . . . 12 3 THE PROCESS TODAY . . . . . 15 Notes . . . . 26 4 THE PROPOSED PROCESS . . . . . 29 Notes . . . . 35 5 PRECEDENCE AND INDICATORS . . . . . . 37 Notes . . . . 44 6 SUMMARY, IMPLICATIONS, AND CONCLUSION . . . . . 47 Notes . . . . 52...