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With the demise of the Warsaw Pact and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the U.S. Army must develop effective combat and support strategies to meet new threats to the nation's security. GAO doubts, however, that the Army's general support maintenance strategies will be effective in future conflicts. The strategy does not reflect the changed threat environment, existing military maintenance capabilities, and actual maintenance practices used in past conflicts. Specifically, the strategy relies on military units for general support maintenance, while in practice the Army uses civilian maintenance workers to do this work, as was the case in the Persian Gulf War. The Army's strategy does not consider using civilians to do general support maintenance during wartime. Of particular concern is the strategy's failure to address regional conflict scenarios in which civilians could likely be used. As a result, the Army must make ad hoc general support maintenance arrangements. Although the Army had enough warning time to arrange for essential repairs during the Persian Gulf War, the timing may not be as favorable during the next conflict and maintenance support operations could be jeopardized. The Army is considering changing its approach for general support maintenance during various conflict scenarios, but none of the proposals being reviewed addresses how to effectively incorporate both military maintenance forces and civilians or how to "mix and match" these forces with the conflict scenarios being considered.