Budget reductions for aircraft maintenance are having a ripple effect through the Marine Corps that ultimately threatens pilot proficiency and may have led to fatal accidents, according to Commandant Gen. Robert Neller.
During a series of hearings on Capitol Hill this week, Neller has voiced concerns about systemic challenges faced by Marine Corps aviation as it tries to keep legacy aircraft airborne while undertaking an ambitious modernization program dependent on airframes that have been bogged down by delays.
“In general, across the Marine Corps aviation enterprise we have challenges,” Neller said March 2 during a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “Every model-type series is a little bit different. I would say the CH-53 community is right now the most challenged because of a variety of reasons.”
Neller was responding to a line of questioning from Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who asked whether a recent mid-air collision of two legacy CH-53E heavy lift helicopters that killed a dozen Marines was related to cuts in training and maintenance funding.
“I want to make sure that as we look at next year’s budget that we dig ourselves out of this hole, a hole created by budget cuts, by this Congress, which has obviously endangered the lives of men and women who are serving our nation,” Durbin said.
An accident review is underway in the crash, Neller said. Investigators and recovery specialists are scouring the seafloor off the north shore of Hawaii to recover the wreckage and remains of the Marines, he said.
“It’s a maintenance issue and when you don’t have enough aircraft to fly then your flight hours go down and it becomes difficult to maintain your currency,” Neller said.
Neller on Tuesday told the House Appropriations Committee (HAC) that while Marine Corps ground-force readiness was trending upward, aviation is lagging because of budget cuts and delays in programs like the F-35B aircraft and CH-53K helicopter.
“Our aviation readiness is really my No. 1 concern,” he said at the HAC hearing. “We don’t have enough airplanes that we would call ‘ready basic aircraft.’ That means we’re not getting enough flight hours.”
The Marine Corps is in the middle of a modernization program that will eventually replace every legacy aircraft in its inventory. That includes F-35Bs to replace the AV-8B Harrier jump jet and F-18 Hornet, new MV-22 Ospreys and newer versions of the AH-1 Cobra and UH-1 Huey rotorcraft.
“We’re at 281 of 360 on Ospreys and we’re still at the beginning of the F-35 that is going to replace three airframes,” he said. “We’re in pretty good shape on the Hueys and we’re a little bit slower on the Cobras.”
The Marine Corps was the first of three services to declare its F-35 variant operational, but its ability to immediately deploy for combat is hotly debated. The service’s first squadron equipped with F-35B is still working out how the aircraft will be used in combat, though none of the aircraft in service have the final version of the aircraft’s avionics and mission systems software.
“Each of those aircraft are in different places,” he said. “MV-22: Probably the furthest ahead. The CH-53: Just beginning the process. “
The CH-53E is last in line for replacement. Its successor aircraft, the CH-53K King Stallion is in initial flight testing but has faced developmental delays. Two prototype aircraft have to date flown more than 25 hours, Neller said.
“That airplane, assuming it all goes on track, we won’t start to see that for several years,” he said. “Right now we have to rebuild the readiness of the 53 fleet. That’s partly getting better parts support, getting these aircraft back in the depot [to do] the reset that we might have done after 15 years of war.”
“We probably kept them in the theater a little too long,” Neller said.