By Rick Maze - Staff writer

Military leaders are warning Congress that there is no quick fix for the personnel, training and equipment gaps that have caused readiness to sag.

The service vice chiefs, testifying April 1 before the Senate Armed Services readiness panel, said six years of combat operations have left deployed or ready-to-deploy frontline units stressed, but still fully trained and equipped for their mission.

But readiness for nondeployed forces and their stockpiled gear is hurting, the vice chiefs said.

Reversing the decline while the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue is difficult, said Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard Cody.

"Our readiness is being consumed as fast as we build it," Cody said, adding that the Army cannot provide a "sustainable tempo of deployments" for troops and their families, and support systems are severely strained.

Gen. Duncan McNabb, the Air Force's vice chief, was similarly blunt: "Our overall readiness is down across the board."

That includes an 11 percent decline in the number of mission-capable aircraft, which would be even worse if not for miracles performed daily by maintenance personnel, McNabb said.

He described a vicious circle working against readiness in which aircraft that are deployed more than expected need more maintenance when they return to the U.S., but the time needed to do that eats into training and reduces flying hours at home stations.

"Since 1996, readiness among the Air Force's major operational units declined nearly 39 percent," McNabb said.

No surprise to lawmakers

The testimony came as no surprise. Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, the readiness panel chairman, said military briefers have been telling lawmakers not to expect significant improvement in readiness until either the size of the force increases or the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan are reduced.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., ranking Republican on the subcommittee, said he believes some fixes for readiness problems are already in place, but the best solution would be to expand the size of the ground forces faster to relieve the strain.

A bigger Army and Marine Corps, however, will not solve the problems detailed by the vice chiefs.

For example, Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Patrick Walsh said ship maintenance remains a problem.

While the Navy is fully funding maintenance for its active forces, it is reducing funding for reserve forces to 89 percent of needs in 2008 and to 81 percent in 2009, leaving a gap of about $15 million in deferred ship maintenance.

One of the most immediate issues, he said, is the P-3 Orion patrol aircraft. The fleet has an average age of 28 years and is suffering from wing problems.

Thirty-nine aircraft were grounded in December for wing cracks, Walsh said. The Navy is seeking funding in the next emergency wartime supplemental to replace outer wings on 42 P-3s.

Cody said the so-called "surge" that temporarily put additional brigade combat teams in Iraq has complicated efforts to improve readiness, and added to the length of time it will take the Army to recover.

"The current demand for our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan exceeds the sustainable supply and limits our ability to provide readiness forces for other contingencies," Cody warned.

A sign of the strain, said Assistant Marine Commandant Gen. Robert Magnus, is the continued backlog of equipment needing depot-level maintenance.

The Marine Corps has capacity to do more in that regard, but the equipment is unavailable for maintenance because it is being used, Magnus said.

"The only factor limiting our two depots is asset availability, not funding or their workload capacity," Magnus said.

Ground combat equipment has taken a particular beating, he said. In Iraq, Marine crews are driving light armored vehicles 8,700 miles a year, far more than the 2,480 miles per year projected in peacetime.

"Our tactical vehicle fleet is experiencing some of the most dramatic effects of excessive wear, operating at five to six times the programmed rates," he said.

And adding armor plating to vehicles as protection against roadside bombs simply adds to the strain because the vehicles were not originally designed for such heavy loads, he said.

Marine aircraft are flying at two to three times their designed usage rate, he said, making it increasingly difficult to maintain enough aircraft in deployed squadrons.

Aircraft in nondeployed units have been reduced by 30 percent to ensure that deployed units have all the aircraft they need, Magnus said.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/04/army_ready_041408w/