"FAMS, within TSA, is the federal entity responsible for promoting confidence in the nation's aviation system through deploying air marshals to protect U.S. air carriers, airports, passengers, and crews. GAO was asked to assess FAMS’s training program for federal air marshals. This report examines (1) how TSA assesses the training needs of air marshal candidates and incumbent air marshals, and any opportunities that exist to improve this assessment, and (2) the extent to which FAMS ensures that incumbent air marshals are mission ready. GAO analyzed FAMS training data for calendar year 2014, the last year of available data, reviewed TSA, OTD and DHS guidance and policies on FAMS’s air marshal training program, interviewed TSA and FAMS headquarters officials, and visited the TSA Training Center and 7 of FAMS 22 field offices selected based on size and geographic dispersion. GAO recommends that OTD implement a mechanism for regularly collecting incumbent air marshals’ feedback on their recurrent training, and take steps to improve the response rates of training surveys it conducts. GAO also recommends that FAMS specify in policy who at the headquarters level has oversight responsibility for ensuring that recurrent training records are entered in a timely manner, and develop and implement standardized methods to determine whether incumbent air marshals continue to be mission ready in key skills."--Highlights page.