Marine Corps generals told lawmakers Wednesday that inconsistent funding hits operations, equipment and planning at all levels\u00a0\u2014\u00a0but none more so than aviation.
Congressional budgeting practices that have funded defense needs with short-term deals and continuing resolutions, essentially fiscal stopgaps, rather than passing a full budget put military planning for everything from jets to personnel in limbo and hurt readiness, officials said.
“Sir, the biggest challenge, and we’re going to foot stomp this all day today, and we really appreciate you listening to this: Stable, uninterrupted, consistent funding so we can do our five-year planning window,” said Lt. Gen. Michael G. Dana, deputy commandant for installations and logistics. Dana, alongside Lt. Gen. Ronald L. Bailey, deputy commandant for plans, policies and operations, and William E. Taylor, a civilian who serves as the assistant deputy commandant for aviation, spoke to the House Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on readiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The officials laid out the current state of the Corps, pointing out that aviation assets such as older F\/A-18 Hornets have had their lifespan extended twice and might face a third extension simply to maintain aircraft readiness during the transition to the F-35 joint strike fighters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taylor said that the transition end date is scheduled for 2031 but the biggest current challenge is whether the F\/A-18s “can last that long.” The Corps revised its aircraft transition plan from a mix of the Hornet and AV-8B Harrier squadrons to instead prioritize their work on the F\/A-18. The next three transition squadrons will be F\/A-18s, possibly the next five, Taylor said. Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., asked Taylor if the Corps was considering buying more F\/A-18s to bridge the gap. But Taylor said that they have no plans to purchase older generation jets for the transition. While aviation garnered the bulk of the attention at the readiness hearing, ground and amphibious assets also concerned the generals. During last year’s readiness hearing, Marines told committee members that the average age of M1A1 Abrams tanks was 26 years and AAVs average age was 33 years. “All of these critical warfighting assets, it’s slow but it’s gradual, it’s discernible and it’s measurable and we’re seeing the impact to readiness,” Dana said. “Whatever money we get we’ll use it wisely, we’ll plan accordingly but we just need consistent funding.” “We’re in that fight right now,” Bailey said. The Corps needs 3,000 Marines with cyber and related skills. Stefanik followed up, asking how the Corps would keep those Marines once they are recruited and trained.\u00a0 “Allow Marines to stay in that field, to work in that field,” Bailey said. “Pay them their different types of bonuses\u2026back that up with schools, jobs and a good command climate, they stay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Marine Corps generals told lawmakers Wednesday that inconsistent funding hits operations, equipment and planning at all levels \u2014 but none more so than aviation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":56605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":69,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news"],"primary_category":"your-military"}}},"categories":[12,67,69],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3396],"class_list":["post-26728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-pentagon-congress","category-your-marine-corps"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"JKHOUHIRFZHHJL5CY2NFL3ZHDQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2017\/04\/05\/generals-foot-stomp-concerns-about-readiness-and-military-funding\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n