At the Nellis Air Force Base, reduction in Red Flag exercises from 6 to 4 means that fewer pilots can participate each year. The new goal is to move pilots thru Nellis once every 18 months vs. once every year. At Camp Lejuene, modernization delays have a serious readiness impact. Equipment is more costly to maintain, less capable, and spare parts cannot always be obtained. In particular, the CH-46 is wearing thin.
Some replacement parts are no longer available.
One Marine officer estimated that if a Gulf War size operation erupted today, only about 50 percent of Marine units would be qualified to deploy. I can tell you, the problems are in all these areas. We have retention problems because we do not have adequate accounts being funded. The various military installations are taking money out of one account and putting it in another account. So at Fort Bragg, for example, they have not been able to maintain their barracks.