The U.S. Military Is In Really Bad Shape

[dukkha]

Last week on Capitol Hill, several top U.S. military leaders from across the armed services presented a sobering case to Congress: U.S. military readiness is the lowest it has been in decades, leaving it unprepared to defend America’s interests at home and abroad.

In testimony before the Senate and House Armed Services committees, the vice chiefs of staff of the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force articulated pressing concerns about the state of their branchs’ readiness to respond to conflicts overseas or attacks on the homeland.

The hearing highlighted substantial readiness and capacity issues within each of the services:

- Army: Of 58 total brigade combat teams (the Army’s main combat building block), only three are considered ready for combat.

-Navy: The Navy’s fleet is the smallest it has been in nearly 100 years. This makes ship repairs harder to complete, as those vessels are needed on the waterways.

-Marine Corps: Eighty percent of Marine aviation units do not have even the minimum number of aircraft they need for training and basic operations.

-Air Force: The Air Force is the smallest and, in terms of many of its aircraft, oldest it has ever been. The service had 8,600 aircraft in 1991 while today it only has 5,500, and those aircraft are an average of 27 years old. Worse, fewer than half of those aircraft are prepared to take on and defeat our adversaries.

These troubling findings by the services echo those laid out by The Heritage Foundation in its 2017 Index of U.S. Military Strength, which rated the Army as “Weak” and the other three branches as “Marginal” in terms of their ability to fight and win major conflicts.

What was noteworthy about the vice chiefs’ testimony beyond these startling numbers, however, was their brutal honesty.

For eight years under the Obama administration, top defense officials were largely silenced and prevented from articulating their concerns about budget cuts and decreased readiness to policymakers with the ability to reverse undeniable decline.

What this hearing and other recent public statements are showing, however, is that defense leaders believe they can now begin to speak openly about the challenges they face, and that Congress and the administration can address these negative trends—especially those caused by diminishing resources.

Make no mistake—budget cuts, especially sequestration cuts implemented indiscriminately across the board beginning more than five years ago, have been devastating to the U.S. military.

Look at flying hours, for example.

Navy, Marine, and Air Force pilots have all seen their flying hours substantially reduced because there simply is not enough money to fly sorties. This has led to pilots being unable to maintain cockpit skills, which like everything else, will atrophy without constant tuning and training.

Worse, this inability to maintain proficiency has led to lethal accidents and loss of aircraft, which may have been preventable—to say nothing of the danger of thrusting our service men and women into combat without giving them the opportunity to train and maximize their readiness.

John Venable, a Heritage senior research fellow for defense policy and retired F-16 pilot with more than 4,400 hours in the cockpit, has written that the 2015 Air Force average of 150 flight hours per year per pilot (just under three a week) means

“the most current and qualified Air Force fighter pilots are flying at a rate so low that we would have considered them unfit for combat in the 80s and 90s.”

And this is 20 to 30 years later, in a world where our enemies have become stronger, more advanced, and more aggressive.

Even if the budget for flight hours existed, however, in many cases it simply would not matter, because the majority of the services’ aircraft are not even considered flyable.

According to multiple reports just this week, about two-thirds of the Navy’s fighter/attack aircraft and more than half of the Marine Corps’ total aircraft fleet are unable to even get off the ground.

These problems are merely the tip of the iceberg. The American people can expect to hear more accounts like these in the coming months as we learn more about the declining state of U.S. military readiness.

However, hope is not lost. Congress and the Trump administration can act to begin reversing this trend. Eliminating sequestration cuts implemented by the Budget Control Act is a necessary first step.

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the...e-19446?page=2

[dukkha]

Trump, Mattis Hail Spending Bill to Fund Strongest Military Ever

The $1.3 trillion spending bill President Donald J. Trump signed today includes the largest military budget in history, reversing years of decline and unpredictable funding, Defense Secretary James N. Mattis said at the White House.

it funds the strongest military in the world, as well as troop increases and the largest pay raise in more than a decade for service members.

Keeping America Safe

“My highest duty is to keep America safe. Nothing more important,” Trump said.

The spending bill also includes, Trump explained, funding for the “final fight in certain areas,” pointing to the liberation of nearly all of the territory once held by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

The bill, which Congress passed hours earlier, funds the government for fiscal year 2018 and includes $700 billion for defense spending.

Trump said that defense funding contained in the bill is an increase of more than $60 billion from last year. It funds the addition of critically needed ships, planes, helicopters, tanks and submarines, he pointed out.

US DoD release

[Sailor]

A strong military is a valid deterrent world wide.

[dukkha]

A strong military is a valid deterrent world wide.

unfortunately we had to add in a lot of wasteful spending to get the DoD increase,
but the military was "in really bad shape" due to lack of funding (sequestor) during the Obama adm.

[Sailor]

unfortunately we had to add in a lot of wasteful spending to get the DoD increase, but the military was "in really bad shape" due to lack of funding during the Obama adm.

Politics at its best right?

[archives]

So, the US has, and has had for some time now, the largest military budget in the world and the "US Military is in really bad shape?"

Are you sure it isn't the allocation of funding, but rather the way the military spends that funding?

[Sailor]

So, the US has, and has had for some time now, the largest military budget in the world and the "US Military is in really bad shape?"

Are you sure it isn't the allocation of funding, but rather the way the military spends that funding?

The article addresses that fairly clearly I think.

[SmarterthanYou]

the republicans are putting together a new bill called the national defense readiness and preparedness act which will require every working american to forfeit the next 12 paychecks to the Department of Defense budget in order to fulfill the panty pissing chiefs of each branch the money that they say the need to protect amerikkkaaaaaaaa

all of those who don't will be forced to pay a penalty to the IRS when they fill out their taxes.

[Nordberg]

The US has spent more than the next 10 nations combined on military and have done so for decades. Ike warned us about the military/industrial complex an what it could do. that is exactly what happened. The original farewell speech was supposed to include media in the military/industrial complex. The military never wants to stay the same. They always want more. What general says we don't want a bigger budget? We have 800 military bases around the globe. We are blowing our healthcare, infrastructure and school money on the military.The only ones who say we do not have the by far strongest military in the world, are Americans .Eisenhower said it was guns or butter, and we chose guns.

[SmarterthanYou]

the ones who want a stronger and stronger MILITARY are the ones who fear terrorism around the world, the kind of terrorism that prevents the spread of american influence around the world. the ones who want a weaker military are the ones who WANT terrorism........in their own country so they can use that fear to beef up the law enforcement aspect of america. the kind of beef that makes them feel safe because they'll see cops everywhere they turn and 'know' that they are protected.

it's all done out of an innate cowardice that has long pervaded most of american culture due to government actions.

[archives]

the ones who want a stronger and stronger MILITARY are the ones who fear terrorism around the world, the kind of terrorism that prevents the spread of american influence around the world. the ones who want a weaker military are the ones who WANT terrorism........in their own country so they can use that fear to beef up the law enforcement aspect of america. the kind of beef that makes them feel safe because they'll see cops everywhere they turn and 'know' that they are protected.

it's all done out of an innate cowardice that has long pervaded most of american culture due to government actions.

Thanks Sean, now back to the planet Earth

[SmarterthanYou]

Thanks Sean, now back to the planet Earth

please. i've seen the crap that republicans blow out of proportion to get the military more money and i've seen the crap that liberals spew to try and take money away from the military. NOBODY wants to deal with the real issue, which is the WASTE that the military actually employs to keep the current money they get. I've seen it. it's disgusting. it's a big part of the reason why I hate government.

[Sailor]

please. i've seen the crap that republicans blow out of proportion to get the military more money and i've seen the crap that liberals spew to try and take money away from the military. NOBODY wants to deal with the real issue, which is the WASTE that the military actually employs to keep the current money they get. I've seen it. it's disgusting. it's a big part of the reason why I hate government.

This cuts right to the core of the problem. A very good insight I might add.

[Ralph]

The US has spent more than the next 10 nations combined on military and have done so for decades. Ike warned us about the military/industrial complex an what it could do. that is exactly what happened. The original farewell speech was supposed to include media in the military/industrial complex. The military never wants to stay the same. They always want more. What general says we don't want a bigger budget? We have 800 military bases around the globe. We are blowing our healthcare, infrastructure and school money on the military.The only ones who say we do not have the by far strongest military in the world, are Americans .Eisenhower said it was guns or butter, and we chose guns.

Truth? Democrats have spent over 22 Trillion dollars on an imagined WAR ON POVERTY and they still have their hat in their hands begging....saying, "more soup please".....now who is mismanaging THE PEOPLE'S WEALTH?

Consider the documented fact that this expenditure of some 22 trillion (not even counting SS and Medicare expenses) has happened over the past 50 years by a left wing nanny state.......and then consider the documented fact that the DOD and the US Military has spent less than 1/3 that amount over a 250 year period 6.7 Trillion during the entire history of the US......combined...all the wars in US history has amounted to less than a third of SOCIALIST WASTE in 50 years. Waste? Indeed.....the poverty index has barely moved since 1969 when the War on Poverty was just declared. Where did the money go?

These documented facts are from 2014....imagine the waste accumulated by Obama during his last 2 years in office.

http://www.heritage.org/poverty-and-...after-50-years

[Tranquillus in Exile]

List by the International Institute for Strategic Studies
Top 10 Defense Budgets 2017 ($ Bn.)

1 United States 602.8
2 China 150.5
3 Saudi Arabia 76.7
4 Russia 61.2
5 India 52.5
6 United Kingdom 50.7
7 France 48.6
8 Japan 46.0
9 Germany 41.7
10 South Korea 35.7

https://www.iiss.org/-/media//docume...2017.jpg?la=en