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BULLSEYE News 7March 18, 2016
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Sequestration poses biggest threat to readiness, military leaders say
By Lisa Ferdinando Ripple effect of sequestration The Marine Corps is no longer in a healthy
The vice chief of naval operations, Navy Adm. position to generate current readiness and si-
DOD News, Defense Media Activity Michelle Howard, said the Navy can maintain a multaneously reset all of its equipment while
ready fleet through a stable budget and being able sustaining its facilities and modernizing to en-
WASHINGTON—The biggest challenge to the to procure and maintain ships with certainty. sure future readiness, Paxton said. “The strains
military’s readiness is sequestration, military Howard said she was in the fleet during a round on our personnel and equipment are showing in
leaders said on Capitol Hill today. of sequestration. Deployments were canceled and many areas,” he told the senators, “particularly
maintenance periods were shifted, she noted. in aviation, in communications and intelligence.”
Sequestration is a provision of the Budget Con- “The ripple effect of that goes through the
trol Act of 2011 that imposes across-the-board years,” the admiral said. “You not only lose the Investments needed in Air Force
spending cuts if Congress and the White House maintenance time, but you lose qualification time Sequestration was felt throughout the Air
cannot agree on more targeted cuts aimed at re- for people, and that experience set can never be Force, the service’s vice chief of staff, Gen. David
ducing the budget deficit. bought back.” L. Goldfein, said.
Howard said the fiscal year 2017 budget request “We also broke faith with our airmen, espe-
The uncertain and restrictive budget environ- provides the resources for deployed forces and cially our civilian airmen,” he said. “When they
ment is forcing the Army to make tough choices, supports continued readiness recovery efforts. were furloughed, we lost a number of them who
the vice chief of staff of the Army, Gen. Daniel B. “This submission also contains the hard choices decided that if the company was not invested
Allyn, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. and tradeoffs we made to achieve future warfight- in them, they were not going to stick with the
ing capability,” she said. company.”
Allyn and his counterparts from the Navy, Air Marines ready to fight The threat of sequestration must be removed,
Force and Marine Corps spoke at a hearing on the For the Marine Corps, members are ready to Goldfein said. Investments are needed in the ser-
current state of readiness of U.S. forces. fight and are forward deployed around the world vice, he added, noting that the current Air Force
for crisis response, the assistant commandant of is one of the smallest, oldest and least ready in
“We must have … predictable and sustained the Marine Corps told the Senate panel. Main- its history.
funding to deliver the readiness that our combat- taining that stance requires carefully allocating “The fiscal year ’17 budget ref lects our best ef-
ant commanders require to meet the missions that limited funds and working around budget limita- fort to balance capability, capacity and readiness
continue to emerge,” Allyn said. tions, Gen. John M. Paxton Jr. said. under the topline we’ve received,” he said. “We
“In our challenging fiscal environment we’re made difficult trades between readiness today
The Army is accepting considerable risk by struggling to maintain all of those balances,” he and the critical investment required to modernize
reducing its end strength while deferring mod- added. for the future against potential adversaries who
ernization programs and infrastructure invest- continue to close the technological gap.”
ments, he said.
“For the United States Army, our No. 1 readi-
ness risk is sequestration,” he said. The other
service leaders echoed that sentiment about their
respective branches.
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