Most Army Brigades, Navy Planes Aren't Combat Ready: Leaders

[Night Hides Not]

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/02/07/most-army-brigades-navy-planes-combat-ready-leaders.html

Only three of the Army's 58 Brigade Combat Teams are ready to fight; 53 percent of Navy aircraft can't fly; the Air Force is 723 fighter pilots short; and the Marine Corps needs 3,000 more troops.

"We're just flat-out out of money" to address those immediate needs and provide the additional personnel and maintenance funding to plan for the future, Navy Adm. William Moran said Tuesday in summing up the concerns of four-star officers across the services.

In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, Moran and other officers said their first priority is for Congress to scrap the budget caps known as sequestration under the Budget Control Act of 2011.

I have mixed emotions over this situation.

Nobody cut me any slack when I was a Systems Maintenance Officer at my unit in 1978. I brought hell down on myself after honestly reporting the condition of our vehicles and weapons systems in my first month on the job. My "deadline report" was over four pages long. I developed an acronym for items with more than 3 deadlining conditions: "MFB", or "Mother F---er's Broke." The folks at Battalion HQ did not like that one, at all.  Worst job I ever had in the Army...had to shoulder all of the responsibility without any authority. IIRC, I developed a bit of an alcohol problem during that time. Would join my motor sergeant and a few other NCO's at the NCO Club (we were on an Air Force base, it was no big deal) for a couple of hours most every night.

So now you have Generals and Admirals urinating all over themselves in front of Congress, crying "we need more money!!!"  I'll bet they don't put up with any "excuses" from their subordinate unit commanders.

Instead of focusing on their needs for the next war, the Pentagon is gearing itself up for the last war. You can buy a lot of drones for the cost of a couple of fighter jets, for example.

I have faith in SecDef Mattis to right the ship, on "only" $600 billion a year.

[driftdiver]

The modern equipment they are using is expensive.  It requires expensive parts and expensive logistics channels.

They've been using equipment up and it hasn't been replaced. 

[Night Hides Not]

The modern equipment they are using is expensive.  It requires expensive parts and expensive logistics channels.

They've been using equipment up and it hasn't been replaced.

Those costs have been inflated, thanks to gross mismanagement in logistics and acquisition. Military contractors game the system, and DCMA (Defense Contract Management Agency) rarely sustains costs questioned during audits.

I'm all in favor of equipping our service members with the best, but there needs to be some serious reform at the contracting/acquisition levels.

[don-o]

Scuttlebutt is that naval aviators going to fleet replacement squadrons for F-18 are experiencing 6 to 8 month wait time to commence.