04-12-2007

The Train Wreck Is Here, Now
By Paul Connors

The years of neglect and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have finally netted the U.S. Armed Forces what those in the know have been warning about for years, namely massive equipment shortages that will require costly re-capitalizations. The service most immediately affected, that also faces the most near term adverse effects is the U.S. Army.

The ostrich-like ignorance and repudiation of a very real need for continued defense appropriations and acquisition is the dual responsibility of both the executive and legislative branches of the government and blame is not the purview of any one administration. The melt-down started during the latter part of the first Bush administration, continued with a vengeance under the Clinton administration and despite the attacks of 9/11 and added global responsibilities for the U.S. military, stayed on its disastrous course in the current administration. In the latter case, the blame needs to be apportioned equally between the administration and Congress; the administration, because the President chose and retained a complete failure as his first Secretary of Defense and the Congress for continuing to “nickel and dime” procurement of vitally needed hardware.

I am not talking about the huge outlays needed for aircraft like the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning II (the Joint Strike Fighter), programs conceived during the waning days of the Cold War. What I am talking about are the less glamorous programs that are just as vital, namely the need for new aerial refueling aircraft that extend the reach of our fighters, bombers and transports, viable body armor for the troops engaged in close combat, vehicles of all sorts and finally, a better, more hard-hitting main-battle rifle.

Soldiers For The Truth founder, the late Colonel David H. Hackworth, U.S. Army (Ret.) fought against the adoption of the M-16 as the military’s main battle rifle in the mid-1960s. Now, more than 40 years hence, the sons and grandsons of soldiers he led into mortal combat in the rice paddies of Vietnam are still using that rifle and its derivatives. Hack had a lot of issues with the M-16, most notably, its propensity to jam when fouled with even the minutest amount of grit or debris or from carbon build-up caused by the expended gases blown back into the weapon with each fired round. Even the tiny 5.56 mm round (.223 Remington) failed to pass muster because it lacked the range, muzzle velocity and mass to be a really effective anti-personnel ammunition.

The list of real needs doesn’t end there. The failure to acquire new hardware is a causative factor in the equipment shortages now faced by every combat brigade in the newly “transformed army.” Re-flagging and changing doctrine may contribute to overall mission success, as will adding a fourth combat brigade to every existing division, but if those brigades are ill or under equipped for the missions for which they are charged, then all of the transformational efforts, all of the doctrinal studies and changes are for naught. Those brigades, all of them, are then “not combat ready.”

After four years of war in Iraq and almost 5 ½ years in Afghanistan, with a standing army of less than 500,000 regulars that immediately required augmentation by members of the Army National Guard and Army Reserve, we are all looking at a force that is broken and very close to exhaustion. Adjutants General in every state of the Union and the U.S. territories have reported to their Governors, the Army and Congress that their deployed units left behind significant amounts of equipment for use by follow-on units. Vehicles and equipment that these same units deployed with was often destroyed or severely damaged in combat and far too often, have NOT been replaced. In the case of Army Guard units, these major equipment shortfalls also render them unable to carry out normal peace-time missions supporting disaster relief efforts back home. These same shortfalls wills seriously hamper the efforts of these same Guard units to successfully carry out and complete the new homeland security missions that they have been assigned by the Department of the Army.

These shortfalls are both serious and potentially dangerous to the nation’s security. Every brigade not in Iraq at this time is not ready for war due to equipment account shortfalls, lack of funding for maintenance and no real plans to correct the situation. The administration downplays all of this and the mainstream media almost always fails to do anything to correctly report the situation so that the taxpayers can understand how truly unprepared we are for any additional threat.

Here are some examples of how bad the situation really is (and this includes personnel and equipment issues). For the first time in nearly 50 years, the 82nd Airborne Division, America’s first alert force does not have enough troops or equipment available to maintain an “alert brigade” on green ramp at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. Another major post, the home of a large armored divisional formation has less than 10% of its assigned 350 tanks ready for combat. Had these numbers been the result of sustained combat, by every major measure, that division would have been considered completely destroyed. This is a division supposed to be available to defend the United States anywhere the government commits it. Clearly, it is NOT capable of doing so.

Because we have a very small army, with numbers kept artificially low by former Secretary Rumsfeld and the President, we had a small force that not only cannibalized its personnel, but it continued to drain its equipment inventories at alarming rates. Congress, in all its political grandstanding glory provided little in the way of real or meaningful funding to replace worn-out, lost, destroyed or unserviceable gear.

In peacetime, the different variants of the M-1 Abrams tank and other tracked vehicles typically drive 500 miles a year. In Iraq, they are averaging ten times that amount of use and they are constantly subjected to hostile fire and the deleterious effects of the desert terrain. If one studies the inventory, battle losses and other equipment write-offs, the conclusion becomes very clear. The rate of losses is not sustainable and these same losses will necessitate a major re-capitalization of combat equipment when we finally do see Iraq in the rear-view mirror for the last time.

The heavy armor phase of the Iraq war is long past. But the vehicles in use today were never designed for a lengthy war in a desert environment. The sand, heat and constant operational usage shorten their service lives in ways not envisioned by the Cold War planners who acquired them so many years ago. The lighter vehicles introduced for patrolling and transport were not designed and are not capable of withstanding that hard usage and the increasingly lethal weapons employed by insurgents who are no match for American forces in a pitched piece battle. Then again, Iraq is not the Fulda Gap. It is increasingly a foot soldier’s war. It is a war of the military policeman and the civil affairs soldier and we are depriving them of the tools they need.

The nation is in denial and it is not sacrificing anything so that our soldiers and Marines, in constant ground combat with an increasingly effective enemy can have the tools of the trade that they really need. They need better body armor, and a battle rifle that is flexible, adaptable and lethal. Also, they need military and civilian leaders who will go to the American people (with the truth this time) to appeal for the means necessary to re-equip our forces.

In the meantime, the profiteers need to be investigated and if necessary, prosecuted. We cannot continue to send our troops into harm’s way with vintage, broken or unserviceable gear while living it up back home, oblivious to the realities of a war that could still be fought on our native soil.

Ellie