Ground Forces Sag Under Combat Load
With
the Army and Marines facing increasing readiness risks, it is critical
that Congress pass the latest emergency supplemental spending bill by
July 1, the Army’s vice chief of staff told the Senate Armed Services
readiness and management support subcommittee today.
The Army needs the money in the supplemental by “payday 1 July,”
Army Gen. Peter Chiarelli, vice chief of staff, said Wednesday. While
that will be of interest to those who follow the money, the bigger
story was the sobering assessment Chiarelli and Gen. James Amos,
assistant commandant of the Marines, delivered about the readiness of
America’s ground forces.
“We are consuming our readiness as soon as we get it,” Chiarelli told lawmakers.
If a hotspot such as North Korea exploded into combat or a major
terrorist attack occurred, the Army and Marines would have a very
difficult time responding. “I think it would be very difficult,
challenging — I don’t think there is any question about it,” Amos said,
adding that it would “emasculate all our strategic reserves.”
Both generals said the country’s ground forces can cope with the
load they are bearing, but cautioned lawmakers that the organizations
they help lead are showing serious strains.
For the Marines, the toll of the last seven years of combat is
clear. Amos said the service has had to sacrifice its traditionally
vaunted capabilities in combined arms operations and large-scale
amphibious operations to be the excellent counterinsurgency force it
has become.
Altogether, the Marines need $20 billion to recapitalize their
forces, of which $12 billion is already forthcoming, Amos said… The
stress of combat and the greatly increased use of air and ground
equipment are beginning to affect the availability of “critical”
equipment, he said.
For example, the Corps had had to pull 14 percent of the equipment
needed for the 2nd MEB headed to Afghanistan from non-deployed units
and 51 percent of the equipment for the brigade rolled right off of
production lines to the Marines, not from inventory.
Marine aircraft “are flying at utilization rates far beyond those
for which they were designed. We are nearly tripling the utilization
rates of our workhorses – the F/A-18C and D; the KC-130 cargo and
aerial refueling platform; our EA-6B electronic warfare aircraft; and
even the new MV-22 Osprey,” Amos said in his prepared testimony. To
keep deployed squadrons fully equipped the Corps has cut aircraft and
parts to non-deployed squadrons. In all, the service is short 248
aircraft.
Sen. Richard Burr, the top Republican on the subcommittee, asked
Amos about the effects of contractors on the Marines’ readiness. Amos
said Honeywell provides 100 contractors who man the main logistics hub
in Iraq’s Anbar Province who do triage on vehicles and other major
systems. “They are critical to our combat support in Iraq,” Amos said,
adding that contractors such as Honeywell will only grow in importance
in Iraq as the number of Marines there declines. “If they are not there
then Marines wearing cammies will have to do the job,” he said.
Part of the Army’s readiness current difficulties lie in the fact
that it supports increasing numbers of soldiers — 10,000 — who cannot
be deployed, Chiarelli said. And the force sees “increased numbers of
soldiers struggling with substance abuse and mental or behavioral
health issues, such as depression, post-traumatic stress, and other
types of anxiety disorders, as well as an increase in the number of
suicides across the force,” Chiarelli said in his prepared testimony.
On top of all that, the Army is still coping from the effects of the
surge in Iraq, Chiarelli said. The last combat brigade won’t be out
until June and the last combat support unit won’t be out of Iraq until
September.
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