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| Science & Technology |
| Army NG Ready For Major Retool, Refit, Resupply |
| 2006-08-01 |
| More than two-thirds of the Army National Guard's 34 brigades are not combat ready due largely to vast equipment shortfalls that will take as much as $21 billion to correct, the top National Guard general said Tuesday. The comments by Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum came in the wake of disclosures by Army officials, analysts and members of Congress that two-thirds of the active Army's brigades are not rated ready for war. The problem, they say, is driven by budget constraints that won't allow the military to complete the personnel training and equipment repairs and replacement that must be done when units return home after deploying to Iraq or Afghanistan. "I am further behind or in an even more dire situation than the active Army, but we both have the same symptoms, I just have a higher fever," Blum said. One Army official acknowledged Tuesday that while all of the active Army units serving in the war zone are "100 percent" ready, the situation is not the same for those at home. It is actually going to save a ton of money for all the old equipment to be left "over there", instead of warehoused, surplussed, sold off or disposed as scrap. And it will radically speed up NG force modernization. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #3 More than two-thirds of the Army National Guard's 34 brigades are not combat ready due largely to vast equipment shortfalls that will take as much as $21 billion to correct, the top National Guard general said Tuesday. and in other news, the pope is catholic. The NGB/DoD Has been looking at this as an opportunity to bring selected bde's up to modern standards since OIF I. The problem, they say, is driven by budget constraints that won't allow the military to complete the personnel training and equipment repairs and replacement that must be done when units return home after deploying to Iraq or Afghanistan. It will be done, it will just take longer and cost even more than they expect. This will be fun to watch. |
| Posted by: N guard 2006-08-01 18:25 |
| #2 Stateside units not ready, National Guard needs money. Muggy in Florida this time of year. |
| Posted by: 6 2006-08-01 17:49 |
| #1 One Army official acknowledged Tuesday that while all of the active Army units serving in the war zone are "100 percent" ready, the situation is not the same for those at home. No different in peacetime. for the 70s and 80s, Europe was always kept at 100% at the expense of stateside units, personnel, equipment, and training dollors outside the strategic reserve divisions like the 82nd. It enjoyed personnel authorizations above 100%. Given that there was always some part of the manpower pool in transit, in training, hospitalized, etc, that meant other units were well below authorized strength. Equipment priorities and funding followed a similar pattern. Further down on the food chain were the reserves and NG. |
| Posted by: Clealet Elmemp6475 2006-08-01 16:03 |