Nearly one of every five of the Corps' aircraft are unable to fly, making it difficult for Marines to train for deployments, the service's top aviator said.
Lt. Gen. Jon Davis, the deputy commandant of the Marine Corps for Aviation, testified before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower on Wednesday. He detailed the effect across-the-board spending cuts have had on Marine aviation, alongside to Navy admirals.
The shortfall spans across aircraft in the fleet, and it is largely caused by a backlog of aircraft stuck in depots for extensive work and overhauls. The problems date back to the 2013 defense budget cuts.
Davis said the problem in the Corps is most prevalent with F/A-18 Hornets, but also impacts CH-53E Super Stallions, AV-8B Harriers, MV-22B Ospreys, and H-1 Hueys.
Across the Navy and Marine Corps, the strike-fighter shortfall could reach as high as 134 aircraft. The gap is caused by a service life extension program that has caused a backlog of Hornets in short-staffed maintenance depots, Vice Adm. Paul Grosklags, the principal military deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisitions, said.
Legacy Hornets were brought into depots to extend their service life from 6,000 flight hours to as long as 10,000 in order to keep them operational until the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter entered the fleet. The Hornets were only designed to last to 6,000 hours, and when engineers opened up the airframe to extend their service life, they found unexpected levels of corrosion that required extensive work.
Besides the additional work in depots, sequestration left depots understaffed, Grosklags said. Depots should have 6,800 artisans and engineers, but the workforce is short 700 artisans, with the most acute gap in the Hornet community.
Sequestration also made it tough to buy spare parts for aircraft, so even aircraft that are in the fleet sometimes can't fly, Davis said. 
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