By Ann Roosevelt
For the Marines and the Army to maintain readiness in the current and future security environment continued congressional investment is critical for success, according to military leaders.
Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. James Amos and Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli testified before the House Appropriations Committee panel on defense yesterday.
In a statement released by panel Chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.) after the closed-door hearing, Amos said the Marines are meeting all the requirements for Iraq and Afghanistan as well as in other areas of the world.
“Forward deployed units are manned, trained, and equipped to accomplish their assigned missions, and 99 percent of deployed Marine Corps units report the highest levels of readiness for those missions,” Amos’ prepared remarks said. “However, resources are limited and non-deployed units incur the costs of ensuring deployed and next-to-deploy units have sufficient personnel, equipment, and training. As a result, 60 percent of our non-deployed forces are reporting degraded readiness levels.”
Chiarelli said, “The forces we are deploying are the best manned, equipped, trained, and led this Nation has ever sent to combat, and we don’t ever want them to be in a fair fight with the enemy.”
However, both generals said their forces were out of balance with the intense focus on counterinsurgency.
This lack of balance, Chiarelli said, entails some risk.
“The demand on our Brigade Combat Teams, Combat Service and Combat Service Support formations, and Individual Augmentees, is simply outstripping the supply needed to provide the Nation strategic depth for contingencies beyond Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said. “The cumulative impacts of almost eight years of war are having impacts on the readiness of the Army. Institutional systems designed for a pre-9/11 Army are strained. Readiness is being consumed as fast as we can provide it.”
“…we have experienced degradation in some of our traditional, full spectrum, core competencies such as integrated combined arms operations, and large-scale amphibious operations,” Amos’ testimony said. Part of the Corps’ concerns lies with the lack of time at home, the need to task those in combat arms with other jobs, such as security, civil affairs and policing.
Congressional support is needed. For the Marines, Amos described the key areas: personnel and military construction, equipment, training, amphibious shipbuilding, and caring for warriors and their families.
For the Army, modernization, growth, and full and timely funding are areas of need.
On the positive side, Amos said the Marines grew by more than 12,000 in fiscal year 2008 and is on track to reach the increased authorized end strength of 202,000 by the end of this fiscal year, two years ahead of schedule.
The Army, too, expects to reach its authorized strength ahead of schedule, and its recruiting and retaining levels are high, “but alarmingly, only three out of 10 applicants are even eligible for military service,” Chiarelli’s statement said.
Equipment for both Army and Marines is taking a beating, the generals said.
“After seven years of sustained combat operations, our deployed equipment has been subject to more than a lifetime’s worth of wear and tear, harsh environmental conditions, and increased operating hours and mileage,” Amos said.
Amos praised the congressional commitment that has funded $12 billion so far for equipment and maintenance resources. The Marines estimate some $20 billion will be needed for reset–a moving figure.
Chiarelli said the toll of combat operations show the necessity to reconstitute equipment, soldiers and units.
“Thanks, in large part to the tremendous support of the Congress, the Army remains the best-equipped Army in the world,” he said. “We are determined to sustain this edge through initiatives such as the Rapid Equipping Force and the Rapid Fielding Initiative.”
The Army will have transformed to its modular design by the end of 2013, Chiarelli said.
“The modernization level of the equipment contained within those modular designs is constantly being updated based on rates of procurement and the prioritization of distribution tied to operational demand for Army forces,” he said. “In response to the uncertainty of threats within the irregular warfare environment, the Army has invested heavily in rapidly developed equipment and technologies to enhance soldier survivability, lethality, and mobility.”
The centerpiece of Army modernization continues to be the Future Combat Systems and complementary programs.
“The accelerated spin-outs of newly developed technologies from the Future Combat Systems program into deployed or deploying combat formations is giving us the additional versatility we need for today’s fights, and will create the transformational formations and capabilities we will need to meet tomorrow’s full spectrum requirements,” Chiarelli’s statement said.
Chiarelli’s statement also airs concerns about funding. Addressing only FY ’09 funding, it said, “the Army today has sufficient funds to pay military personnel and to continue operations through June.”
The FY ’09 supplemental request is nearly complete, and the passage by May of that legislation “guarantees a continuation of operations without disruption.”
Key to the supplemental funding is to reset Army equipment. “In total, FY ’09 dollars will fund the reset of 32 Brigades over FY ’09 and FY ’10, and over 80,000 items of equipment. Any delay in reset procurement funding will negatively impact the equipment readiness of the Army,” Chiarelli’s testimony said.