{"id":18320,"date":"2016-03-02T20:13:21","date_gmt":"2016-03-02T20:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2016\/03\/02\/lawmaker-questions-why-some-navy-seals-buy-their-own-gear\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T18:58:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:58:02","slug":"lawmaker-questions-why-some-navy-seals-buy-their-own-gear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2016\/03\/02\/lawmaker-questions-why-some-navy-seals-buy-their-own-gear\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmaker questions why some Navy SEALs buy their own gear"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Navy SEALs have been telling a San Diego congressman that they&#8217;re under-equipped and forced to spend their own money on combat gear, and he is on a quest for answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rep. Duncan Hunter,\u00a0R-Calif.,\u00a0asked the military&#8217;s top special operator why<span class=\"rte rte-comment\"> took his questions to the head of U.S. Special Operations Command in a budget hearing on Tuesday, asking Army Gen. Joseph Votel why it is that <\/span>Navy special operators are forced buy some pieces of their own gear and to turn in their firearms at various points in the deployment cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;They don&#8217;t get weapons now to work up with for two years. They get their weapon when a guy comes back,&#8221; Hunter\u00a0said. &#8220;They have to turn that weapon back in again even if they&#8217;re still in work-ups and they&#8217;re going to deploy nine months later.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s a different process than between 2001 and 2010, Hunter said, based on the accounts of\u00a0<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">according to the <\/span>sailors who have visited <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">him at <\/span>his home office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I was in the Marine Corps. We just took what we could get and do what we were told,&#8221; he added.\u00a0&#8220;But you guys are special. That&#8217;s why you have special in your name.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Army Gen. Josephy Votel, the head of U.S. Special Operations Command,\u00a0deferred to Rear Adm. Brian Losey&#8217;s team at Naval Special Warfare Command, adding\u00a0<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">but offered <\/span>that the teams&#8217; high op tempo might be backing up some maintenance with the weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;This is not a factor of too many rounds going through the weapon,&#8221; Hunter retorted. &#8220;It&#8217;s a matter of where the money&#8217;s being spent. What are your priorities for the SEALs? If it isn&#8217;t having a weapon that stays with you for a deployable term, then what are they?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hunter&#8217;s questioning follows a Feb. 17 letter his office sent to Losey and NSW, arguing it&#8217;s a problem that some SEALs say they&#8217;re under-trained\u00a0<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">that though the command&#8217;s operations and maintenance budget has increased by millions in recent years, the SEALs say they are still under-trained and under<\/span>-equipped despite their millions of dollars in recent budget boosts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;More concerning, it is my understanding that there aren&#8217;t enough weapons for SEAL teams\u00a0\u2014 let alone an individual operator\u00a0\u2014 to have their own weapons,&#8221; Hunter wrote. &#8220;As it currently stands, following a deployment, a SEAL will have his weapon taken from him, which has been fine-tuned to certain specifications, and given to a different operator to use. This means that SEALs standing by to deploy are waiting for different teams to come back stateside just so they can use their weapons.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hunter requested a report of how the command spend its funds in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I can confirm that Congressman Hunter has a congressional inquiry and we&#8217;re working to provide responses to that,&#8221; Naval Special Warfare spokesman Cmdr. Jason Salata told Navy Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Gear gripes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hunter&#8217;s questioning comes a week after he invited a former active-duty operator and current reservist Lt. Cmdr. Sean Matson, who <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">now <\/span>owns a military gear company,\u00a0to Capitol Hill to discuss these readiness woes, as reported by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stripes.com\/news\/lacking-basic-gear-special-operators-stuck-buying-their-own-equipment-1.396109\">Stars and Stripes<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Matson said that, as an example, he had to put up $900 of his own money to buy a high-quality ballistic helmet when the Navy dragged its heels on upgrading his kit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hunter blames the issue on the command&#8217;s supply chain, for not issuing the gear the SEALs have asked for quickly enough to make a difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;There are also reports of a lack of optics, night vision and laser attachments,&#8221; Joe Kasper, Hunter&#8217;s chief of staff, told Navy Times.\u00a0&#8220;All this has happened while the [Operations and Maintenance]<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">O&amp;M<\/span> budget for Navy Special Warfare has increased.\u00a0 So there are obviously some trade-offs being made, but they\u2019re occurring at the expense of operators and their firepower \u2014 and those are the absolute worst trade-offs to make.&#8221; \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some inside the Navy, however, question whether operators are truly going without, and\u00a0if Hunter&#8217;s inquiry has more to do with vendors like Matson, who would like to speed up the acquisition process to boost their businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;There\u2019s a lot of small business guys that do niche SOF equipment that want to get into the acquisition cycle,&#8221; said one Navy official, who spoke on background to discuss the inquiry.\u00a0<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly.\u00a0&#8220;This guy <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Matson acknowledges that he was in fact issued an appropriate ballistic helmet,&#8221; the official said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think it has to do with us not having enough rifles. I think it has to do with, when you want to buy a new sling for that rifle, how do you go about doing it?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If he wanted a different helmet he felt was better, and bought it himself because he couldn&#8217;t get it through the stock system, that&#8217;s a lot different than NSW not properly equipping SEALs, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;You know, we have a group of people in the Navy that do development<span class=\"rte rte-comment\"> group<\/span>, they&#8217;re called Naval Special Warfare Development Group,&#8221; the official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also known as SEAL Team 6, DEVGRU&#8217;s acquisition cycle moves much more quickly<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">,<\/span> because the unit is tasked with <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">doing <\/span>researching <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">on <\/span>new gear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;So let&#8217;s say there was a group of people that had a way bigger mission than just the regular deploying SEAL,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The processes are flatter for some parts of the NSW community than others, and that&#8217;s what the others want to be like.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Once a request is made for a new piece of gear, it has to go through a series of SOCOM tests and evaluations before it&#8217;s issued. In many cases, SEALs aren&#8217;t allowed to deploy with off-the-shelf gear, particularly when it comes to body armor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to SOCOM policy, <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">for instance, <\/span>operators are only allowed to deploy with the\u00a0SPEAR body armor system unless otherwise approved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Local purchase of body armor that has not been tested and approved by USSOCOM is prohibited,&#8221; according to the instruction, obtained by Navy Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speeding up the acquisition process throughout the command, the official said, would allow SEALs to be issued their preferred gear, though it&#8217;s not clear whether items like helmets and sights can be used on a deployment if they aren&#8217;t SOCOM-approved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kasper confirmed that Hunter is concerned both with SEALs&#8217; general readiness, as well as their acquisitions activities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rep. Duncan Hunter is demanding a review into how the Navy SEALs spend their equipment budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":40615,"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":65,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[12,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3308],"class_list":["post-18320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-your-navy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"CSKIYYZWFFCKDPZYZNCKJOAROI","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-navy\/2016\/03\/02\/lawmaker-questions-why-some-navy-seals-buy-their-own-gear\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lawmaker questions why some Navy SEALs buy their own gear - Navy Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rep. 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