Chiefs Tell Senate DoD Needs Money for Modernization
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2000 -- “We cannot mortgage future
readiness,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen.
Henry Shelton told the Senate Armed Services Committee
Sept. 27.
“We are collectively robbing Peter to pay Paul, or robbing
modernization, which is long-term readiness, to pay for
current readiness,” Shelton said. The chairman testified
along with other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They
stressed shortfalls in modernization accounts throughout
DoD.
The members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff say current
readiness is fine, but the military will need more money to
fund modernization programs.
Shelton said the “first-to-fight” forces of the U.S.
military are undoubtedly ready to fight. But, he said, many
other units are not. “For example, the airborne tanker
fleet, our strategic airlift fleet and our intelligence,
surveillance and reconnaissance units, all of which provide
crucial capabilities to our warfighting forces, … are not
as ready,” he told the senators.
He said these strategic units and other combat support and
combat service support units -- along with the training
base -- are “in some cases suffering the consequences of
resources that have been redirected to sustain the near-
term readiness of our first-to-fight forces.”
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Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki, Marine Corps
Commandant Gen. James Jones, Chief of Naval Operations Adm.
Vernon Clark and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Ryan
echoed the chairman’s remarks.
“The price for achieving that kind of readiness in our
early deploying units has been to accept risk elsewhere in
the force,” Shinseki said. “First, we have diverted
soldiers from other organizations to fill our high-priority
war-fighting formations. Second, we have for years
mortgaged our future readiness, this modernization effort,
in order to assure that our soldiers had in the near-term
what it takes to fight and win decisively. And finally,
given the increased operational tempo because of the more
diffuse and more demanding strategic environment, we have
leveraged our war-fighting readiness on the backs of our
soldiers and their families.”
Shinseki also told lawmakers that preliminary data shows
the Army needs more people.
Clark said the Navy needs more ships and planes per year to
maintain long-term readiness. He said the current rate of
between six and seven ships per year is inadequate to
sustain the rate called for in the 1997 Quadrennial Defense
Review. The Navy needs about 10 ships per year Clark said.
Ryan told the lawmakers that even with the money added to
the DoD budget, “that our near-term readiness in the United
States Air Force has not turned around. Combat unit
readiness has dropped well over 20 percent, and our mission
capability rates on our aircraft are down by 10 percent
over the last decade.”
He said these decreases in readiness can be attributed to
past underfunding of spares, high operations tempo, loss of
experienced airmen and an aging aircraft fleet. He said
retaining experienced people is a crucial concern to the
service as well as modernizing the fleet. “Our aircraft are
aging out at a rate that has us very concerned,” he said.
“We must recapitalize this force.”
He said the average age of Air Force aircraft is 22 years.
“In 15 years it will be nearly 30, even if we execute every
modernization program we currently have on the fiscally-
constrained books,” Ryan said. “We've never dealt with a
force this old. It has taken an inordinate amount of time,
work and money to keep the force air-worthy and ready.”
Ryan said the budget means the Air Force is buying about
one-third of the aircraft needed to stop the aging of the
force, “and we are on a 250-year replacement cycle for our
infrastructure, where our people work and live.”
Jones said that under the current budget the Marine Corps
will reach a “steady state maintenance level,” meaning the
Marine Corps would never really get to modernize. He also
said the way the services buy new equipment means money is
wasted. “With regard to acquiring some new systems, we also
have to work hard to make sure that we buy them more
efficiently,” Jones said. “We tend to buy things and then
spread them out over long periods of time; then it drives
the unit cost up. … The V-22 is a good example of that. We
can actually, by investing more money towards
modernization, accelerate the full operational capability
of some systems, and thereby save a lot of money as well.”
Shelton said part of the problem is that Congress has not
approved two new Base Realignment and Closure rounds. DoD
estimates are that the department would save about $3
billion per year from closures of unneeded bases. This is
money that would go directly to modernization, Shelton
said.
That said, even with BRAC money, DoD would need more money.
The chiefs estimated that about $50 billion more per year
is needed to fully fund modernization. Shelton said the
next Quadrennial Defense Review, set for 2001, would be
able to address these numbers better.
All of the chiefs spoke about modernizing the military
while at the same time improving service members’ quality
of life. All stressed that while modernization is important
to future readiness, having quality people is crucial. All
the chiefs addressed problems of increased operations tempo
and all praised the Senate for their work on pay raises,
pay table reform and retirement changes.
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