Costs of Military vs. Civilian Hard to Assess

GAO also said that under current practices, it is difficult to assess the relative costs of employing civilians versus using military personnel. It is uncertain what actual compensation levels will be required to successfully hire most civilian replacement personnel and the figures the Pentagon is compiling about the cost of the conversions to DoD do not include the full compensation costs for military personnel, in particular training costs. The cost issue is one of the major elements in the debate over whether certain work in the military should be done by uniformed personnel, DoD civilians, or by contractors.