Army: 78% Of Combat Brigades Will Skip Training Due To Sequester, CR

AOL Defense ^ | 6 Feb 13 | Staff

[SkyPilot]

WASHINGTON: Rarely have such pretty slides told such an ugly story. While Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno tries to talk up "The Force of Tomorrow," Army briefing documents obtained today by AOL Defense lay out the near-term impact of sequestration, the Continuing Resolution, and unresolved overseas contingency operations needs: an enormous $18 billion shortfall for the service that will be borne almost entirely by federal workers and military readiness.

You can see the slides by clicking "download this document" (up and to the left) and read the detailed talking points here, but the highlights are harrowing enough:

Training: The Army will have money to fully train only a fraction of its total force: The 82nd Airborne's Global Response Force paratrooper brigade, units in Korea, and troops headed for Afghanistan. Everyone else will cancel everything more elaborate than "squad-level training."

That means the largest Army formations that practice together as a team will be eight-man squads. For comparison, even a football team gets to put 11 players on the field at a time – and as hard as you have to practice to win the Super Bowl, the Baltimore Ravens didn't have to rehearse how to coordinate the actions of thousands of players working as a unit while somebody was trying to kill them.

[TADSLOS]

Afghanistan and Iraq. We win the war in weeks then spend 10 years trying to win the peace. Send the military to win wars. You want peacemakers send the Peace Corps.

Bingo. Same with "nation building".

[garbanzo]

No, that isn’t all the options! There are thousands of federal agencies that can be cut, furloughed, or closed completely, and there will be little difference in how the nation proceeds.

And it will make next to no difference to the federal deficit. Here's the problem. "Everything else" is chump change. It's like a couple on the edge of bankruptcy refusing to sell their yacht, get rid of their country club membership, and selling their thoroughbred and instead canceling their cable subscription to save money.

[jch10]

You fail to see the total picture. The more that is cut from other budgets, the less cut from the military. Plus, permanent cuts to the waste will not be a factor in the future.

[celmak]

Does anyone know the percentage change of the budget if the sequester takes effect over one year/ten years? If so, please give the amount before and after the baseline of the budget is given for those years so we can see the whole picture. Frankly, I came up with less then 10% difference; and that's after the baseline is implemented!