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The Defense Department risks continued decline in the condition of its equipment, due to extended use in the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office.

GAO analyzed the fleetwide condition of 30 types of equipment and found that readiness rates for most had declined between fiscal 1999 and 2004. The drop was the most noticeable in the last two of those years, because of continuous high use and the advancing age and complexity of the systems, the report stated.

Items such as Army and Marine Corps trucks, combat vehicles and rotary wing aircraft have been used far past their normal peacetime levels, GAO said.

The report (GAO-06-141) used a color coded system - red, yellow and green - to describe the condition of Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force equipment and to establish whether the Defense Department has identified strategies and funding plans to meet its requirements.

Inventory of three pieces of equipment -- the Army's CH-47 D/F Chinook transport helicopters, the Marine Corps' M1A1 Abrams tanks and the Navy's P-3 Orion maritime patrol planes -- scored red on the GAO list, indicating that problems with them are so severe that they require immediate attention by the military services and Congress.

The Marine Corps CH-46E Sea Knight helicopters were the only inventory item given a red for the near-term funding plan, while seven inventory items were red for long-term funding plans. Those items were the: Army's Bradley Fighting Vehicles and M113 Armored Personnel Carriers, the Marine Corps' Sea Knight helicopters and CH-53E Super Stallion transport helicopters, the Navy's P-3 Orion aircraft and Standard Missile-2 Surface-to-Air missiles and the Air Force's KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft.

Some of the near- and long-term program strategies for the selected items reviewed by GAO have gaps, according to the report, and plans to ensure that the items can meet Defense requirements have not been fully identified.

GAO recommended that Congress pass a law requiring the department to accompany its annual budget submissions with reports detailing plans to maintain and modernize equipment systems, and related costs. The information in the report should also be reflected in the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review, the auditors said.

The Pentagon partially agreed with the GAO recommendation that it should reassess its near- and long-term programs for important pieces of equipment, stating that the annual budget process already fulfills this requirement. Defense officials disagreed, however, with the idea of providing the information in an annual report to Congress.