|
"Readiness" is the ability to operate our forces in the field. Forces are not "ready" if their equipment lacks spare parts or if too many are in the shop for repairs. Forces are also not ready if the people do not have the training to perform effectively in the field or if they lack the supplies and ammunition they will need once there. At times, the Pentagon has tried to preserve funding for new weapons by shortchanging the amounts spent on readiness. This can result in a "hollow force," which looks good on paper, but cannot operate effectively and which often experiences low morale by the people who must try.
"Congressional Aide Finds Spending On 'Core Readiness' In Decline" by Elaine M. Grossman, Inside the Pentagon, June 28, 2001. Succinct coverage of the "Spartacus Report," detailing how spending on core readiness has declined despite huge increases in defense spending, much of which was justified on the need to improve readiness.
"Information on the Use of Spare Parts Funding is Lacking," GAO 01-472, June 1002 (182 KB .pdf). For FY 1999, Congress gave the Pentagon an extra $1.1 billion in emergency supplemental funds specifically earmarked for spare parts. We know that $87 million actually did go into an account for Navy aircraft spares; the rest disappeared into general operations and maintenance accounts and could have been used for most anything.
Trip Report: 10th Mountain Division, Ready or Not? by a Senate staffer. 26 September 2000. Although the 10th MD may officially be "ready" by Pentagon reporting statistics, this trip report to Ft Drum details "multiple, serious shortages of people and material resources, training deficiencies and other impediments to readiness, a large number of them resulting from policies imposed by Washington." The report also describes the heroic efforts many 10MD personnel are making to ensure that combat effectiveness is maintained as well as possible, despite these policies.
Trip Report: Navy and Air Force Air Combat Training, by a Senate staffer, 30 January 2000. A primary reason America's fighter pilots rule the skies lies in the training the very best of them receive at the Navy's Topgun and the Air Force's Fighter Weapons School. Unfortunately, misguided policies emanating from inside the Beltway are letting these crown jewels deteriorate. These disturbing facts are documented in a detailed report by a
Congressional staff member with many years experience working defense issues.
Trip Report: Staff Trip to Army Training Facilities, by a Senate staffer, December 1997. The first visit by this veteran member of the Senate staff to advanced training facilities that are supposed to give US units the edge in combat. Despite the uniformly high dedication and professionalism of the OPFOR units, decisions made at DA, DoD, and Congress are seriously degrading the effectiveness of the training at these facilities and the readiness of combat forces Army-wide.
The Tillson Report, October 1999. John Tillson, West Pointer, Vietnam combat vet, and analyst at the Institute for Defense Analysis examines the reasons for low retention among the Army's best and brightest. It's not just, or even primarily, the deployment rate or low pay and benefits (although these do matter). Warriors and true leaders resent an antiquated personnel systemlong ago abandoned by the best corporationsthat treats people like interchangeable cogs in a machine and rewards those who master the arts of bureaucracy and careerism. (416K .pdf file)
About the Comments (Full text of the references are available on Infowar)
|
Comments:
|
|
|
|
Will Digitization Work (II)? An NCO Responds, July 22, 2001
|
|
|
Will Army Digitization Work? - Mud Soldiers Sound Off, July 2, 2001
|
|
|
Trip Report: 10th Mountain Division, Ready or Not? October 3, 2000
|
|
|
Know-Nothing Defense: The Forgotten Side of the Readiness Debate, September 1, 2000
|
|
|
Culture & Deteriorating Performance at NTC - a Mud Soldier Sounds Off, March 17, 2000
|
|
|
Why are Captains Leaving the Army? A Question of Leadership, January 29, 2000
|
|
|
Roots of Crisis in Army AviationAn Old Fart Aviator Sounds Off, January 29, 2000
|
|
|
The Question of Values (II) Why Awarding Medals is Like
Cog Maintenance in a Fredrick Taylor Production Line, November 15, 1999
|
|
|
Will an Across-the-Board Pay Raise Stop the Personnel Exodus? September 21, 1999
|
|
|
Drill Sergeants vs. Hollywood (IV) - CAPT XXXXX & CMDR YYY Respond, August 21, 1999
|
|
|
Drill Sergeants vs. Hollywood (III) - Maj XXX Responds, August 20, 1999
|
|
|
An Active Army Pilots View of Proficiency Training (Correction of Error - #289A), July 3, 1999
|
|
|
Trickle Down Defense - Why Gas Masks in Korea Should Not Be a Metaphor for the American Art of War, April 15, 1999
|
|
|
Two Army NCOs Sound off About Retention in the Army, March 24, 1999
|
|
|
An Outsider Synthesizes a Structural Portrait of Decay ... and Wonders: What is Going On? March 23, 1999
|
|
|
A Self-Portrait of the Army's Personnel Problems, March 23, 1999
|
|
|
Air Force Combat Command Paints a Grim Portrait, March 23, 1999
|
|
|
Shortage of Protective Masks in Korea while Missile Defense Budget Zooms Upward, March 4, 1999
|
|
|
What Standards Make Good Soldiers? ... A Veteran of Task Force Smith & Vietnam Speaks, February 18, 1999
|
|
|
The Personnel Retention Crisis: What Standards Make Good Soldiers? ... and ... Should We Bring Back the Draft? February 17, 1999
|
|
|
Email Common Sense (II): TacAir Readiness, Suppressing Email from the Troops, and the Widening Wedge of Mistrust, February 6, 1999
|
|
|
Readiness Trap Sprung--The Real Game Begins, October 10, 1998
|
|
|
AF Readiness - Plummeting Pilot Retention Sets Stage for Crash-- A Cry From the Field, September 27, 1998
|
|
|
Ready for What? … Loose Nucs, Scud Missiles, and the Changing Nature of Conflict, September 26, 1998
|
|
|
Hollow Defense Debate Heats Up as Congress Moves to "Save"
Readiness by Adding Unneeded Weapons Systems, September 25, 1998
|
|
|
Readiness Trap Sprung: Battle of Encirclement Evolves into Budgetary Equivalent of the Ulm Maneuver as Administration Leaves the Field, September 23, 1998
|
|
|
Readiness Trap Sprung - Battle of Encirclement Looms as Budget
Pincers Slice into Clinton Administration, September 22, 1998
|
|
|
Are We Better Today than 20 Years Ago? -- An Army Master Sergeant's Reality Check, September 15, 1998
|
|
|
The Hollow Defense Debate: Admiral Gehman's Readiness Perception Gap Re-Visited, September 14, 1998
|
|
|
Hollow Defense Debate Continues to Depart from Reality, September 12, 1998
|
|
|
Notes from the Sausage Factory: Readiness Critics Go Nuclear While Troops Suffer, September 2, 1998
|
|
|
Why Emperors Lose their Clothes (II) August 31, 1998
|
|
|
Why Emperors Lose their Clothes, August 30, 1998
|
|
|
READINESS TRAP SPRUNG (II)? - Defense Intelligentsia Leads Stampede into Howling Wilderness of the Post-Information Era, August 10, 1998
|
|
|
Why are Pilots Leaving the Navy? One Senior Officer's Opinion: They Are Not Training Realistically and are Disgusted with Hypocrisy, August 3, 1998
|
|
|
Navy Pilot Retention, August 3, 1998
|
|
|
READINESS TRAP SPRUNG? - Senate Passes Amendment as Part of a Plan to Increase Defense Budget by $60 Billion over Next Three Years, August 1, 1998
|
|
|
Why are pilots leaving AF? July 29, 1998
|
|
|
Why are pilots leaving AF? July 28, 1998
|
|
|
Why are pilots punching out of AF? July 28, 1998
|
|
|
Army -- Report of Senate Staff Member's Trip to the National Training Center and the Joint Readiness Training Center, December 11,1997
|
