Posted on 07/20/2011 4:04:09 PM PDT by Nachum
This is the grim state of our military’s readiness: An Air Force F-15C that broke in half during flight, two F-18s that have caught fire aboard ships, every single cruiser with cracks in its hull, A-10C Warthogs with fuselage cracks, the UH-1N Twin Huey helicopter fleet that is regularly grounded, and over half the navy’s deployed aircraft not ready for combat.
That is the picture of the U.S. military in disrepair—what The Heritage Foundation’s Mackenzie Eaglen calls a “readiness crisis” among all U.S. military services, including the National Guard and reserves. Readiness is “dangerously lower,” she writes, leading to “delayed, shortened, and less diverse training; plugging personnel and equipment shortfalls in deploying units with resources from others; reduced maintenance for worn-out equipment; and shortened rest time before redeploying overseas.”
How did the military get here? A decade of constant combat and ever-increasing disaster relief and homeland defense missions has contributed to the decline in readiness, and Eaglen writes in AOL Defense that the navy is under particular strain:
While the fleet has shrunk by about 15 percent since 1998, the number of ships deployed overseas has remained constant at about 100. Each ship goes to sea longer and more often, resulting in problems such as the well-publicized shortfalls in surface ship condition. With no surge capacity left in the fleet, each new casualty ripples through the schedules of dozens of ships. With the end of supplemental funding, Navy maintenance funding will be cut by almost 20 percent this year. In this context, a relatively small additional reduction in maintenance funding could render a Navy with 250 to 280 ships capable of keeping only 50 to 60 ships at sea.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.heritage.org ...
General Pace, You Can Save the US - by Arresting Bush for “Conduct Unbecoming”
August 25, 2007
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martin-lewis/general-pace-you-can-save_b_61785.html
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The exact same thing happened in jimmah cahtah’s first term. Now that we are in his second term its deja vu all over again.
Nice try. As per the article, much of the rot occurred under Dubya and Rummy’s watch. You can thank them for much of this state of affairs.
I must say that if the military is in this bad of shape it didn’t get that way in 2 1/2 years.
Terry Mross>>I must say that if the military is in this bad of shape it didn’t get that way in 2 1/2 years.
Heretics! How dare you speak such truths?!
Please report for re-education.
Most of the logistic figures for military equipment was way too low for wartime utilization rates.
In peacetime a set of combat boots could be expected to last 18 months. In Afghanistan they were lasting about 6 months. Something to do with rocky terrain verses American forests.
Hummer's were going down for maintenance three to four times faster than the logistic plans said they should. Something about overloading (new armor) and fighting around the clock.
F-16 engines stocks went to zero because of airborne and ground alerts imposed by Operation Noble Eagle (post 9/11 air defense of the US). No 1/2 sortie per aircraft possessed per day scheduling - the peacetime logistic planning factor
We, the DOD, had forgotten what was like to fight a war that went 24/7/365. It was too expensive to plan for such a reality so we built a military for 8 - 5, Mon - Fri, with weekends and holidays off. Then added career breaking safety restrictions.
Example - “Can you exceed engine limits to save the aircraft?” “No, the computer will prohibit it.” “So, it is better to lose an aircraft, crew, a SpecOps Team, than to overstress the engines?” “Yes.” BTW - I had this conversation while working in AF TD&E so it isn't fiction!
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