[House Hearing, 109 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.A.S.C. No. 109-14]
HEARING
ON
NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT
FOR FISCAL YEAR 2006
AND
OVERSIGHT OF PREVIOUSLY AUTHORIZED PROGRAMS
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
READINESS SUBCOMMITTEE HEARING
ON
MILITARY SERVICES' REQUIREMENT ON RECONSTITUTION OF EQUIPMENT
__________
HEARING HELD
APRIL 6, 2005
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READINESS SUBCOMMITTEE
JOEL HEFLEY, Colorado, Chairman
JOHN N. HOSTETTLER, Indiana SOLOMON P. ORTIZ, Texas
WALTER B. JONES, North Carolina LANE EVANS, Illinois
JIM RYUN, Kansas GENE TAYLOR, Mississippi
J. RANDY FORBES, Virginia NEIL ABERCROMBIE, Hawaii
JEFF MILLER, Florida SILVESTRE REYES, Texas
MIKE ROGERS, Alabama VIC SNYDER, Arkansas
JOE SCHWARZ, Michigan ROBERT A. BRADY, Pennsylvania
CATHY McMORRIS, Washington SUSAN A. DAVIS, California
JOHN M. McHUGH, New York JIM MARSHALL, Georgia
HOWARD P. ``BUCK'' McKEON, KENDRICK B. MEEK, Florida
California MADELEINE Z. BORDALLO, Guam
ROBIN HAYES, North Carolina TIM RYAN, Ohio
ROB SIMMONS, Connecticut MARK UDALL, Colorado
JEB BRADLEY, New Hampshire G.K. BUTTERFIELD, North Carolina
CANDICE MILLER, Michigan
TRENT FRANKS, Arizona
Lynn Bope, Professional Staff Member
Ryan Vaart, Professional Staff Member
Paul Lewis, Counsel
Mary Ellen Fraser, Counsel
Lindsay Young, Staff Assistant
Sarah Gelinas, Staff Assistant
C O N T E N T S
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CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF HEARINGS
2005
Page
Hearing:
Wednesday, April 6, 2005, Fiscal Year 2006 National Defense
Authorization Act--Military Services' Requirement on
Reconstitution of Equipment.................................... 1
Appendix:
Wednesday, April 6, 2005......................................... 27
----------
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2005
FISCAL YEAR 2006 NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT--MILITARY SERVICES'
REQUIREMENT ON RECONSTITUTION OF EQUIPMENT
STATEMENTS PRESENTED BY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
Hefley, Hon. Joel, a Representative from Colorado, Chairman,
Readiness Subcommittee......................................... 1
Ortiz, Hon. Solomon P., a Representative from Texas, Ranking
Member, Readiness Subcommittee................................. 2
WITNESSES
Christianson, Lt. Gen. Claude V., Deputy Chief of Staff, G-4,
U.S. Army...................................................... 3
Holtz-Eakin, Douglas, Director, Congressional Budget Office...... 7
Hugel, Rear Adm. Mark A., Deputy Director, Fleet Readiness
Division, U.S. Navy............................................ 6
Huly, Lt. Gen. Jan C., Deputy Commandant for Plans, Policies, and
Operations, U.S. Marine Corps.................................. 4
Wetekam, Lt. Gen. Donald J., Deputy Chief of Staff for
Installations and Logistics, U.S. Air Force.................... 5
APPENDIX
Prepared Statements:
Christianson, Lt. Gen. Claude V.............................. 41
Hefley, Hon. Joel............................................ 31
Holtz-Eakin, Douglas......................................... 88
Hugel, Rear Adm. Mark A...................................... 53
Huly, Lt. Gen. Jan C......................................... 74
Ortiz, Hon. Solomon P........................................ 36
Wetekam, Lt. Gen. Donald J................................... 65
Documents Submitted for the Record:
CBO Estimates of Potential Needs Compared with Funding chart. 127
CBO and Service Estimates of Costs Related to Equipment
Stress and Loss chart...................................... 129
Maintenance and Replacement Activities in CBO's Bottom-Up
Method chart............................................... 128
Questions and Answers Submitted for the Record:
Ms. Davis (Susan)............................................ 137
Mr. Hayes.................................................... 136
Mr. Hefley................................................... 133
Mr. Miller................................................... 137
Mr. Reyes.................................................... 135
Dr. Schwarz.................................................. 136
Mr. Taylor................................................... 136
FISCAL YEAR 2006 NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT--MILITARY SERVICES'
REQUIREMENT ON RECONSTITUTION OF EQUIPMENT
----------
House of Representatives,
Committee on Armed Services,
Readiness, Subcommittee,
Washington, DC, Wednesday, April 6, 2005.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 2:08 p.m. in
room 2118, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Joel Hefley
(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOEL HEFLEY, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM
COLORADO, CHAIRMAN, READINESS SUBCOMMITTEE
Mr. Hefley. The committee will come to order, and please be
seated, gentlemen.
I apologize, first of all, for being a little tardy here. I
was in the Terrorism Subcommittee hearing dealing with a
subject that was very important to me. So I just am running a
little late, and I hate to do that.
I want to welcome you to this afternoon's subcommittee
hearing on resetting or reconstitution of military equipment
returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) or Operation
Enduring Freedom (OEF).
This is the subcommittee's second hearing on this topic;
the first was held in October of 2003. Much of the testimony at
that time indicated that there was not enough information yet
to determine the cost of reset. Today, we do know more. Through
emergency supplemental funding, the military services have
received approximately $9 billion for reset cost. The fiscal
year 2005 emergency supplemental has a request for
approximately $9.8 billion for reset requirements. Although
these figures are large, there are more bills to come. We will
most likely see those bills in a fiscal year 2006 emergency
supplemental.
A structured reset program requires time, facilities, spare
parts, trained workers, contractors, forward deployed
maintenance workers and full funding that includes both
operation and maintenance of procurement dollars. It is not
clear to me if the reset programs are fully funded. I have
asked the director of the Congressional Budget Office to be
present today in order to decipher the different methods that
can be used to calculate reset costs. Reset is a priority and a
must-pay bill. Congress must understand how each of the
services has determined the size of the bill and managing
implementation.
I also intend to explore today to what extent factors other
than money limit reset. Do we have the spare parts? Are there
adequate facilities both at home and in the theater? And the
most challenging factor, time; how much time will it take?
Not surprisingly the Army and Marine Corps have the most
significant challenges. The current operational tempo
(OPTEMPO), combined with the aging fleet and significant combat
losses challenge the Army and the Marine Corps ability to
sustain operational availability. I expect to learn today what
actions the Army and the Marine Corps are taking to meet this
challenge.
I would like to gain a better understanding of the
difference between reset and recap, two important programs in
the Army. I would also like to better understand the Marines
cross-leveling of equipment as a means to make up equipment
shortfalls.
I would like to now turn to Mr. Ortiz, the Ranking Member,
to see if he has any opening remarks.
Mr. Ortiz.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Hefley can be found in the
Appendix on page 31.]
STATEMENT OF HON. SOLOMON P. ORTIZ, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM
TEXAS, RANKING MEMBER, READINESS SUBCOMMITTEE
Mr. Ortiz. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I join you in welcoming
our distinguished witnesses, and I look forward to hearing the
testimony on this important readiness issue.
Before I begin, I would like to first express my thanks and
appreciation to our military personnel for all the sacrifices
they make in providing for our defense.
I would like also to recognize the support of the many
dedicated government service civilians and private individuals
who work hard to help maintain the readiness of our armed
forces. We cannot fight and win without them, and I thank them
for their dedicated service to our national defense.
Mr. Chairman, our armed forces have been engaged in combat
operations for over three years now, and the stress of this
continuous combat is clearly evident on our military's
equipment. Increased usage rates, environmental conditions and
heavier armor are wearing out our ground and air equipment as
much as five times faster than peacetime. This problem is only
made more difficult by the Department of Defense's (DOD)
requirement to reconfigure equipment to meet its goals of
transformation.
While I have been pleased to see the effort that the
service has put into meeting these challenges, I am very
concerned by the growing backlog of expenses that have not been
requested by the Department's fiscal year 2006 budget for the
supplemental budget request. By Congressional Budget Office's
(CBO) estimates, this growing mountain of worn-out equipment
could cost as much as $18 billion to repair or replace. This is
an enormous shortfall, and surely it will have an effect on our
ability to respond to continuances in the future.
I hope the officers on our panel today, who have the very
difficult job of managing this emerging problem, will be able
to explain to you how they plan to overcome this funding
shortfall.
One final point I would like to make before I close this
about the defense: Our defense industrial base, the depots that
repair all of this damaged and worn-out equipment are carrying
a tremendous workload. At this point, I see little surge
capacity remaining in our depots to meet emerging requirements.
The current conflicts have demonstrated that we must have
the ability to surge our industrial base and sustain that rate
over the long term. I hope our witnesses will take this
opportunity to comment on the defense industrial base and how
they plan to ensure our depots are strong and fully equipped to
meet the needs of our troops in the field.
I, again, welcome our witnesses, and I thank you for your
courage. Thank you, sir.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Ortiz can be found in the
Appendix on page 36.]
Mr. Hefley. Thank you very much, Mr. Ortiz.
Let me introduce the witnesses and ask any of them if you
have an opening statement and if you would like to summarize
that.
Without objection, all witnesses' written statements will
be made a part of the record.
First is Lieutenant General C.V. Christianson, Deputy Chief
of Staff, G-4, United States Army. Second is Lieutenant General
Jan Huly, Deputy Commandant for Plans, Policies and Operations
of the Marine Corps. Third is Lieutenant General Donald
Wetekam, Deputy Chief of Staff Installation of Logistics,
United States Air Force. Fourth is Rear Admiral Mark Hugel,
Deputy Director of Fleet Readiness Division of the United
States Navy. And finally, Mr. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Director of
the Congressional Budget Office.
Lieutenant Christianson, are you the kick-off guy here?
STATEMENT OF LT. GEN. CLAUDE V. CHRISTIANSON, DEPUTY CHIEF OF
STAFF, G-4, U.S. ARMY
General Christianson. Yes, sir.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Ortiz,
distinguished members of the committee. Thanks for the
opportunity to appear before you today to talk about the work
we are doing to reconstitute our Army's equipment.
Fundamental to our Army's ability to meet future threats is
the absolute requirement that we rapidly return our equipment
to an effective level of readiness upon return from operational
employment.
Over the past 3 years, the Army has deployed over 40
percent of its equipment to Operations Iraqi and Enduring
Freedom. Currently, we have about 15 percent of our equipment
in the forward area. The increased operating tempo of our
deployed equipment, combined with the harsh environment and an
aging fleet plus significant combat losses challenges us to
sustain readiness at the tip of the spear.
As an example, Army helicopters experience usage rates
roughly twice their peacetime rates. Tanks and other track
vehicles are being used at roughly five times their peacetime
rates, and our truck fleet is operating at three to five times
what we would consider normal peacetime rates. This readiness
challenge can only be met with a structured, formal, fully-
funded program to reset the equipment when it returns from the
operational area, complimented by a long-term program to ensure
we can sustain the readiness of our systems over their entire
lives.
We feel we have developed a comprehensive approach to
providing our forces with ready and capable equipment. Even in
the midst of this conflict, our approach ensures that, first of
all, the forward commanders have the combat power they need,
while minimizing the load on the strategic transportation
system. Second, that returning units will be rapidly returned
to an operationally ready condition, prepared for whatever
mission comes their way. Third, as we are able to draw down our
forward forces, that we can reset that equipment that we have
kept in the operational area. Fourth, that our Army
prepositioned stocks (APS), our APS equipment, is brought back
to readiness condition for its mission as soon as it is able to
be redeployed. And last, that we have in place a long-term
program to sustain the operational readiness of our all
critical systems over their lives.
Mr. Chairman, on behalf of the soldiers, their families and
our professional civilians, we greatly appreciate the support
of the Congress, and especially this committee, in addressing
our needs. Your support has given us a solid foundation upon
which we are building a stronger, more relevant and ready
force. We appreciate your support, and I look forward to
answering your questions this afternoon. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of General Christianson can be
found in the Appendix on page 41.]
Mr. Hefley. Thank you.
General Huly.
STATEMENT OF LT. GEN. JAN C. HULY, DEPUTY COMMANDANT FOR PLANS,
POLICIES, AND OPERATIONS, U.S. MARINE CORPS
General Huly. Chairman Hefley, Congressman Ortiz,
distinguished members of the committee, it is my privilege to
report to you any actions taken to date to reset the Marine
Corps as well as our future reconstitution efforts. These
actions are critical to ensuring we are prepared to meet
today's operational challenges while maintaining good
stewardship of our Nation's treasure. I recognize that this is
only possible with your continued support while we remain at
war.
There are a myriad of programs ongoing to reconstitute the
Marine Corps. Our forces preparing for combat and forward
deployment are using their equipment three to six times higher
than normal. This increases the cost of operations and
maintenance beyond what was originally budgeted. Additionally,
our gear is being damaged by enemy action and worn down in the
harsh desert environment. These effects increase maintenance
and create a toll that frequently renders economical repair not
feasible after being used in Iraq and Afghanistan. Repairing,
replacing and redistributing this equipment among units
rotating in and out of theaters of operation are some of our
highest priorities.
Our prepositioning programs have once again proven their
strategic utility by helping to close rapidly and sustain
reinforcements in combat. We are recovering from using these
extensively for Operation Iraqi Freedom, but we face some
challenges, two of our three Maritime Prepositioning Squadrons
(MPS) have been reconstituted and will complete a scheduled
maintenance cycle in the next one to two years. Equipment and
supplies from the third squadron have been downloaded and used
for current requirements in Iraq. We are planning to
reconstitute this squadron and our Norway prepositioned
equipment as soon as possible, and have identified the
replacement of our ground equipment as an area where our fiscal
year 2005 supplemental request will be applied.
While our analysis of requirement costs continue, we are
confident that our supplemental request, when combined with
those additional items presented at the behest of the Congress,
is what we need to continue to fight the global war on terror
(GWOT) while continuing to modernize the force, where
practical.
Added to supplemental funding requests, the Marine Corps is
internally funding essential warfighting equipment through an
urgent-needs process that allows us to fulfill requests and
provide to marines and sailors rapidly the equipment they need
to conduct combat mission in operations Enduring and Iraqi
Freedom. This process of satisfying urgent requests is directly
tied to lessons learned on the modern battlefield; enables us
to bypass the normal development procurement process and
aggressively pursue improved armor, counter-improvised
explosive device (IED) equipment, medical packages, rifle and
night-vision optics, and other important items that can be
quickly placed in the hands of troops conducting operations.
In September 2004, in order to meet the current enduring
challenges of the changing nature of the war, the Commandant
improved numerous structural changes to our operational forces;
bringing these improvements to fruition will require the
continued support of this committee in supplemental and
additional items as we begin the extensive phases of
recruiting, equipping, building and training these additional
marine units.
In closing, I would like to again thank the members of the
committee for their continued support of the Marine Corps and
for the opportunity to discuss our current readiness and its
inextricable link to our resource requirements. Marines'
accomplishments are a direct reflection of your continued
support and commitment to maintaining our Nation's
expeditionary warfighting capability. I look forward to
answering your questions.
[The prepared statement of General Huly can be found in the
Appendix on page 74.]
Mr. Hefley. General Wetekam.
STATEMENT OF LT. GEN. DONALD J. WETEKAM, DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF
FOR INSTALLATIONS AND LOGISTICS, U.S. AIR FORCE
General Wetekam. Chairman Hefley, Congressman Ortiz and
distinguished members of the committee, I thank you for the
opportunity to appear today.
It is my privilege to report on our reconstitution efforts,
our successes in this area and our challenges for the future.
The Air Force is organized, trained and equipped to meet
expeditionary commitments through our Air Expeditionary Force
(AEF) concept. We have sized our logistics support system to
meet those AEF requirements, along with maintaining a surge
capability. Our experiences to date in Operations Enduring
Freedom and Iraqi Freedom have largely confirmed the fact that
our logistics system is capable of meeting those requirements.
We have experienced many successes throughout OEF and OIF. We
have flown over 270,000 sorties, opened 36 bases and supported
as many as 31,000 airmen within the Central Command area of
responsibility. Our airmen have been busy and successful.
Of course these successes are not the result of internal
Air Force efforts alone. Congressional help was and remains key
to providing the funding necessary for protecting our forces,
replenishing and replacing equipment lost in combat, and
reconstituting critical capabilities.
No success comes without challenges, especially in a combat
environment involving multiple locations worldwide. The cost of
resetting the force continues to increase with each passing
year of the global war on terrorism. As we face these
challenges, we thank you for your continued support. I offer my
written comments for the record and look forward to our
discussion on this important topic.
[The prepared statement of General Wetekam can be found in
the Appendix on page 65.]
Mr. Hefley. Admiral Hugel.
STATEMENT OF REAR ADM. MARK A. HUGEL, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, FLEET
READINESS DIVISION, U.S. NAVY
Admiral Hugel. Chairman Hefley, Congressman Ortiz, and
distinguished members of this committee, thank you for the
invitation to come and spend time discussing the reconstitution
of our military equipment returning from Operations Iraqi
Freedom and Enduring Freedom.
Through your support, the Navy has been able to repair and
replace equipment utilized to support United States operations
in theater and maintain the level of readiness forecasted by
our budget programming models.
Before I address fleet reconstitution, I would like to
share a snapshot of what our Navy is doing today. We currently
have 93 ships and 38,000 sailors forward deployed worldwide in
support of the global war on terror, including the Carl Vinson
Carrier Strike Group and the Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary
Strike Group.
The Navy Ashore component has proven critical to continuing
ongoing and combined operations with extensive medical,
construction and other combat support and combat service
support to the Marine Corps and Army ground elements. In
addition, we have recently participated in operation non-
focused items (NFI) assistance, which provided sustained relief
to South Asian tsunami victims, demonstrating our surge
capability and the value of seabasing in both responsiveness
and access.
Testimony today addresses three areas of fleet readiness.
The first is maritime readiness, which covers the maintenance
approach that we are applying to the increased wear on our
ships and submarines involved in the global war on terror.
Our ship maintenance budget during this period reflects the
proper balance of readiness which directly contributes to the
combined power of our forward presence forces and our ability
to surge assets as required by the fleet response plan. Due to
the increased operational tempo associated with the global war
on terror, we have been experiencing some increase in the war-
related maintenance, and we have been successfully able to
address those challenges through using supplemental funding.
Similarly, in the aviation area, we have sufficient
supplemental funds each fiscal year to fund equipment
reconstitution for our aircraft supporting OIF and OEF. Our
aviation and maritime depot maintenance programs have been able
to fund and execute necessary maintenance and repair actions to
provide a surge-ready force while maintaining the appropriate
workload balance between public- and private-sector industrial
base. Additionally, we are finding and implementing innovative
process improvements to assure that our maintenance is being
delivered effectively and efficiently.
Finally, my testimony addressing our success in
reconstituting our naval ground forces, in particular our naval
construction force, allowing continued level of sustained
support for the Marine Corps and Army ground forces in Iraq,
Kuwait and Afghanistan. Again, the financial support of the
budget supplemental process allows the Navy to maintain our
current readiness levels while still accomplishing the emerging
wartime missions as they occur.
In closing, I would like to thank you for your continued
support of our Navy. Your efforts have been critical in
allowing the Navy to sustain an unprecedented level of current
readiness and to be prepared to surge when called upon.
I would like to thank the committee for offering me this
opportunity, and I stand ready to answer questions.
[The prepared statement of Admiral Hugel can be found in
the Appendix on page 53.]
Mr. Hefley. Mr. Holtz-Eakin.
STATEMENT OF DOUGLAS HOLTZ-EAKIN, DIRECTOR, CONGRESSIONAL
BUDGET OFFICE
Mr. Holtz-Eakin. Mr. Chairman, Congressman Ortiz, and
members of the committee, the Congressional Budget Office is
pleased to have the chance to be here today to discuss the cost
of additional equipment stress. As the committee is well aware,
the United States has maintained a substantial force presence
in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the result has been that many
hundreds of thousands of pieces of equipment are in need of
repair or replacement.
The heart of the CBO's work in this area is summarized in
the chart which you have in front of you and which is on the
poster, which shows our estimates of the cost of equipment
stress in this area. As the written statement details, we take
two approaches to estimating these costs. Given the absence of
complete and comprehensive data, we take a top-down approach
which broadly attempts to assess the additional costs by
looking at faster depreciation due to higher operational tempo.
And the second approach is a bottoms-up approach, which for
each piece of equipment would directly measure costs associated
with sustainment, restoration, recapitalization or replacement.
But uncertainty is associated with both approaches, but the
results indicate that, for 2005, there is a range of $7 to $8
billion in additional costs associated with the higher
operational tempo and that, over the window from 2003 to 2005,
this higher cost ranges from somewhere in the vicinity of $18
to $21 billion. If one goes back over that period, as the
statement provides the details for, we can see a range of $3 to
$5 billion in funds dedicated to this task, and as a result,
there is an accrued unpaid liability there of somewhere in the
vicinity of $13 to $18 billion for excess costs in excess of
funding.
The distribution of these costs across services is unequal.
Because of the larger presence of the Army, about 60 percent of
these costs are associated with Army equipment; 20 percent in
our estimates are associated with Air Force aircraft; and the
remaining 20 percent are split between the Navy and the Marine
Corps, with the latter predominating.
The CBO's estimates are quite similar to those produced by
the services themselves. Their estimate is about $13 billion,
and the percentage distribution in cross services is similar as
well.
Looking forward, to the extent that the United States
maintains the same presence in these areas in fiscal year 2006
and assuming that the operational tempo is diminished somewhat
next year, one could estimate that these costs will occur in
the range of $6 to $7 billion for FY 2006.
Now I would close our remarks in emphasizing the
uncertainty associated with these estimates. In either
approach, the top-down or the bottom-up approach, our
particular estimates could be either too high or too low. In
the top-down approach, it could be the case that adding an
additional intensive year of usage does not, in fact, mean that
the lifetime has been reduced in proportion to that intensity.
Maybe their peacetime rates are much lower than one would
expect the equipment to be used at, or in the other direction,
we could understate the cost by not directly factoring in the
harsh conditions in which the equipment are operated.
More generally, under both approaches, an enormous amount
of data is required to do it exactly right. In the absence of
that data, we adopted an approach of trying to bracket the
approach with two different analytic constructs and by using
analogies where we did not have direct evidence on these costs.
We thank you for the chance to be here today and look
forward to answering your questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Holtz-Eakin can be found in
the Appendix on page 88.]
Mr. Hefley. Thank you very much.
We keep getting testimony that a lot of the equipment is
going to be left over there, simply is not going to come back,
and you testified to that here. Is that because of the level of
use of the equipment or the harsh environment, or both? Is this
equipment that, if it was here in the United States, would be
repaired and put back into service? The Navy always operates in
a harsh environment of salt water, and now we are operating on
the ground in sand. Is that what is causing this? Or is it, you
feel, that just bringing it back and then having to repair it
and bring it up to standards would simply not be economic?
General Christianson. There are really two reasons, Mr.
Chairman, why we have decided to leave equipment in the area of
responsibility (AOR).
First is that some of that equipment is special equipment,
for example, all of the vehicles that had armor plating added
to them we left over there so that we could maximize the level
of force protection. In addition, there is some special
communications gear. There is gear over there that we have put
in the theater that allows us to detect explosives. There is
gear in the theater that allows us to jam frequencies and do
other kinds of things that we do not have a lot of, so we do
not want to keep rotating it back and forth. So, primarily, we
are leaving equipment there that gives the soldiers and the
forward members of the military the kind of capabilities they
need to execute the warfight.
The second reason that we would leave equipment over there
is to take some of the load off the strategic distribution
system. Instead of sending things back and forth, the more we
can leave in theater, the easier it is for us to work on the
strategic system; plus, it is more rapid for the people to
transition from one unit to the next if a lot of the equipment
stays there. So those are the two fundamental reasons.
The second part of your question is, do we intend to fix
that? Absolutely, we do. We concur with the CBO findings that
there is a workload out there that we have not yet identified
because we do not know when it is going to come back. But when
it does come back, we will put it through the same process that
we are doing for the equipment that is coming back with the
units today.
General Huly. Sir, in the Marine Corps, we have those same
concerns with the equipment, and the same rationale added to
those. We believe we are saving in transportation costs by not
bringing some of the equipment back, even though we possibly
could, but to just leave it in place over there and then just
redistribute what we need within the Continental United States
(CONUS).
Some of the equipment over there is one of a kind, so it
just makes sense to leave it there and get the maximum use out
of it, and we replace it only as necessary. And some of the
equipment is just not worth the effort to bring it back; it is
in such a shape of disrepair that it just makes sense to leave
it there.
Mr. Hefley. Mr. Ortiz.
Mr. Ortiz. At what point do you know that some of this
equipment that you just cannot bring back has to be replaced
and buy new equipment? And the period of time that it takes to
replace this equipment?
General Christianson. Congressman, actually, we are finding
out some of that right now. As units have come back with their
equipment, there is a percentage of their equipment that cannot
be repaired. It is just too costly to be repaired, and we have
to replace it. In the cases where we have production lines
going, you should see that come to you as a procurement
requirement.
In those cases where we do not have any production
capacity, where we are not making the item anymore. For
example, the Bradley, you will see that come to you in recap
requirements to turn that chassis, that hull of a tank or a
Bradley back into a new piece of equipment at the latest
standards.
And we have some planning factors we use on how many are
what we call wash out, in other words, how many are worn out so
badly that they cannot be repaired and they need to be
replaced. And I have some of those numbers here.
In the case of aviation, we are anticipating about three
percent of our helicopters will never be replaced, they are
just too beat up. Tracks, about two percent. But the biggest
number is wheeled vehicles, and we estimate about 12 percent of
our wheeled vehicles, when they come back, cannot be repaired
and have to be replaced. So those are the planning factors we
are using.
In terms of the timing of when they come back, that is a
tough question because we rely on the forward commander to
determine whether or not they need those capabilities forward.
So in the case of up-armored humvees, I do not anticipate up-
armored humvees coming back for a long, long time until our
forestructure is drawn down to the point where we do not need
as many as we do today. So that vehicle is going to be the last
coming back. So it is a reset requirement that sits out there,
as the CBO indicated. We just do not know when we are going to
actually fix them, so it is very difficult for us to anticipate
programming those dollars.
Admiral Hugel. Sir, we have recently undertaken an
initiative to establish repair and replacement facilities in
theater. And as you probably know because you have been there,
the operating forces get the equipment in their hands, they get
comfortable with it, and by golly, they are going to use it.
And it is just the case of having the one in your hand. It is a
process for us to get them to evaluate that equipment, to turn
it in, to get a new piece of gear, and then we evacuate that
piece of equipment to a location, generally either in the rear
with our foreservice support group in theater, or we evacuate
it back to Kuwait, so we can get a good analysis of it. And I
do not have to tell you because you have been there, but you
have seen some of the equipment. It is just not equipment that
you would want to bring back and operate with in the United
States. Perhaps the turn signals might not work on it. Perhaps
the speedometer does not work. It is just nothing that will
ever prove worthwhile for us to repair and replace back here
again, but it meets the purposes for over there, and it just
makes good sense to keep it in theater for as long as we
possibly can.
General Wetekam. Sir, if I might for the Air Force.
Our situation is a little different. We do rotate most of
our equipment. In terms of our aircraft, we do rotate those,
and so they receive depot-level maintenance, et cetera, back
here at their normal depots.
A lot of that is true also for our ground support
equipment. The major exception are vehicles and some of our
specialized mobility handling equipment. Even prior to 9/11, we
had five War Reserve Material (WRM) sites established in
theater with contract support, and so while we have had to plus
up those contracts for support of additional equipment that we
have put in theater, we do have in-theater support for a lot of
that stuff.
Admiral Hugel. Congressman, as you know, the Seabees we
have on the ground have similar ground support equipment as our
Marine Corps brethren. We have folks there to do maintenance on
that equipment on the ground. And as long as that equipment is
economically feasible to maintain, then we are going to keep it
maintained and bring it home with us when the time comes. When
it is just not economically feasible to do the repairs anymore,
then we will abandon it in place, but we do not see very much
of that.
Mr. Ortiz. I just have one more question, Mr. Chairman.
You know, given the current state of the equipment and the
condition of the equipment, what would happen, God forbid, if
there is an unforeseen crisis somewhere in the area? You know,
we have Lebanon, Syria. We have Iran. We have Iraq. Some of the
equipment is not worthy. Can we respond to another unforeseen
crisis with what we have?
General Huly. Sir, for the Marine Corps, we have
approximately 25 percent of our aviation assets of our total
assets in the inventory, and about 30 percent of our ground
equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan right now.
We have sufficient storage. We have two maritime
prepositioned squadrons worth of equipment that we have not
touched and we have fenced, so to speak. And they are forward
deploy, one in the Mediterranean and one in the Pacific region,
so that if we needed to respond to a crisis, we would have a
maritime prepositioned squadron worth of equipment.
Added to that, we still have equipment with our
organizations in the Continental United States that we are
swapping around, cross-leveling to get back to the units as
they rotate. So I believe that we have sufficient assets, more
than sufficient assets, to be able to respond to a crisis.
Is it necessarily the equipment that we are going to want--
that we are going to actually need in the next crisis? I will
tell you, for instance, right now, we do not have a lot of up-
armored vehicles, humvees, for instance, in the Continental
United States because as fast as the industrial base can
produce them, we are shipping them directly into the theater.
If something were to break out that we needed armored humvees
again in a different location, we would have to look at either
another source of supply for those or actually sharing what we
have elsewhere. But overall, I think we are in good shape to
respond to any crisis that develops, that we certainly are
anticipating might be a potential.
General Christianson. As you know, we have prepositioned
sets; we have a set in Korea that is pretty much land-bound in
Korea if something were to happen there. We also had put, about
two years ago, a Flotilla, a one-by-one brigade, aboard ship
that has got some strategic flexibility and can move. So we do
have some prepositioned assets.
And the 4th Infantry Division and the 101st are just
finishing their reset coming back. If something were to happen
and it was important enough, we would probably hold units in
the current operation to use those organizations to respond if
we had to.
So we have got about 15 percent of our combat equipment
forward positioned in Iraq. The rest of it remains here. About
a third of that is going to reset. The rest of it is ready to
go. So there would be some difficult decisions, but we have the
capability to respond.
Mr. Ortiz. My time is up, thank you so much.
Mr. Hefley. Mr.Taylor.
Mr. Taylor. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
First of all, I want to say I am honored that these
gentlemen are here today. I regret that we could not have
included the Guard and the Reserve because I think an important
component that we are missing today is that the overwhelming
preponderance of Guard and Reserve equipment that has gone to
Iraq stayed in Iraq, and so we are looking at a portion of the
problem, but the biggest portion, if you are looking for the
problem, is what the Guard and Reserve left behind, and I think
that is a fair assessment.
I would like to ask a few questions in particular of the
Air Force. I am troubled by the Administration's acknowledged
plan to terminate the C-130J program, particularly in light of
every trip that I have taken to Iraq, it is pretty apparent
that we are flying the wings off of the C-130's that are in the
region. A lot of those are E models, I am told, and a lot of
those the Air Force has already scheduled to retire at the end
of this conflict. So I would like your thoughts on that, what
is being taken to address that.
I would like to hear what your different Guard and Reserve
components are telling you. I know the Marine Corps Reserve has
been extremely active in Iraq, I know the Army Reserve and Army
National Guard have been extremely active over there. I am sure
you have called up the seabee reserve to serve over there, and
so my hunch is that a lot of the equipment that was dedicated
to them--and I know for a fact that, when the 90th Engineers
came back to Mississippi after their tour in Iraq, they left
every stick of equipment they had behind. So we have now been
through a hurricane season that, thank goodness, did not hit
Mississippi, but was only 60 miles away. The folks we were
counting on their stateside mode to help reopen the roads and
get electricity to the people and fix bridges; they did not
have a stick of equipment last August and September when the
hurricanes hit many parts of the states adjacent to us.
And last, I would like to turn this back to the Marines and
the Army.
I am happy that this committee is doing, I think, a lot of
work toward resolving the armored humvee problem; we still have
a lot to do. Just last week, a couple of Mississippians were
horribly injured, one losing two legs; but all present
acknowledged that had it not been for the fully-armored humvee,
that those two soldiers probably would have lost their lives.
It is something I should have seen myself, but thank
goodness someone else was smart enough to point it out to me.
Almost all of our vehicles in theater have flat bottoms. When a
mine detonates underneath that flat bottom vehicle, it is much
like a flat-bottom boat hitting a wave; the reaction is very
severe. You are catching the full pressure of that detonation.
It throws the vehicle up. In the case here, the humvee was
thrown over 10 yards I am told.
I am told that in some parts of the world, and particularly
the South Africans, in responding to the landmines that they
were encountering during their wars, they went back and
redesigned many of their urban fighting vehicles to have a V-
bottom. Much like a V-bottom boat, it slices and diffuses that
force. In fact, I am told the Russians were probably very good
at this and that most of the vehicles they used in Bosnia had a
V-bottom. And when their vehicles would hit a landmine, it blew
the tires off, but the people inside the vehicle walked away
from it.
What is being done as we reconstitute to be a little bit
smarter? And I have got to admit, I am one of the ones that
fought very hard for the up-armored humvees, but maybe it is
time to look beyond that to some sort of an urban fighting
vehicle that incorporates a V-bottom so that we find ourselves
with fewer young people that are in Walter Reed because of
their legs blown off as a result of that flat bottom.
So I know it is three questions, the C-130J, sir, the talk
about your Guard and Reserve equivalents and their equipment
shortages, and what are we doing as far as looking at the next
generation of fighting vehicles and responding to the landmine
problem that we are encountering in Iraq?
General Wetekam. Sir, if I may, I will start with the C-
130J briefly.
The Department of Defense has indicated that we are going
to review the production decision on the 130J within the
Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). The 130J is really part of a
larger issue, and that is the theater lift issue, and what do
we need and what is our current capability and what is our
current fleet telling us?
The production termination decision was made almost
coincidentally with the discovery that our C-130E and early age
model fleet was not as robust as we thought it was. Essentially
the problem with the center wing box that was discovered almost
at the same time. And so what we are really doing is looking at
the entire theater lift issue, the C-130 fleet as a whole. The
130J obviously has to be a part of that solution as we
determine really what part of the 130E model and H model fleet
are going to be available to us, what it takes to reconstitute
that fleet. And so that will be--that is being looked at
currently.
General Huly. Just for the record, so we do not get lost in
the shuffle; the Marine Corps is also into the C-130Js. Our C-
130J requirement and solution is different than the United
States Air Force's. We received some 33, I believe, of the C-
130Js out of a fleet of about 51 we were anticipating. Recent
funding decisions got us cut off for the procurement of those
last 18, but we think that that funding is being put back in so
we can ultimately get our requirement of the C-130Js. But to
us, the C-130J version that we are getting is a great aircraft,
and we look forward to its service for many years in the
future.
Mr. Taylor. General, to that point, I had the good fortune
to meet one of your flight crews in Kuwait just last week, and
they had been up most of the night refueling other planes. And
he was extremely proud of the performance of the plane. What he
did request--and I am going to pass this on to you--is the
program to replace the fuel pods can be moved along, apparently
they took the pods off some older models and stuck them on the
newer planes. He felt like it was in the works. If there is
anything this committee can do to move that along, I am asking
for your thoughts on that.
General Huly. Sir, I am going to take that question for the
record, and I will get back to you on that, to exactly what the
status of that is. I know it is in the works, but I want to
give you the exact scoop.
[The information referred to can be found in the Appendix
beginning on page 136.]
General Christianson. Sir, let me address first of all the
equipment that we left behind, particularly for the Guard and
the Reserve forces.
The Army has developed a force generation model of which
will put our Reserve components of one in five or one in six
years, and what the intent is that for one year out of that
five or six year cycle they would be ready for deployment. The
challenge we have right now, particularly with the Guard, is
with their homeland security and their state missions, the
suite of equipment they must have in their unit to do that
mission you just mentioned for the Mississippi Guard, we have
not yet identified this. We will identify that, and we will
fill those units with that equipment. So even coming out of a
deployment like the one we came out of now, we are obligated to
provide the equipment to those organizations to execute those
state missions. And then as they come into that one year
window, then we give them all the equipment they need to
execute their full-mission suite. That process was not in place
when the first rotations came back, as you know. So most of the
Guard and Reserve units, engineer in particular, transportation
units in the Reserve had to leave almost all of their main
equipment in country, and it is still there being used every
day. So we have that challenge to address that.
Our intent is to handle the Guard, the Reserve and the
active forces exactly the same. The rotational model is one in
three years for active, one in five for the Army Reserve, and
one in six for the National Guard. That is the intent. Now we
did not get there right away with these forces, so we still
have some work to do, but at the strategic level, we are going
to maneuver the equipment to give the units the capability to
be able to handle their mission sets.
General Huly. As far as the Reserve equipment for the
Marine Corps goes, we are doing our best to cross-level once
our Reserve levels get back; 95 percent of all of our Reserve
units have seen combat in either Afghanistan or Iraq. And as
they return, we are providing them with what equipment we have
got and replacing the equipment that has been damaged or
destroyed, looking for industrial base opportunities where that
is needed. And we are also trying to, as you pointed out, be a
little bit smart in what we are replacing in anticipation of
our future requirements. We are looking for those opportunities
and vehicles to get better armor on them, underneath armor. We
have taken some of our humvees, as you know, and armored them
up better on the bottom so that they can withstand a certain
quantity of a landmine or an explosive charge placed underneath
them. That does not get all of the support that we want under
there, and we are looking forward to the next generation of
vehicles, but have not decided on which one to procure yet.
Admiral Hugel. Congressman, our active components are an
integrated fighting force; we prepare the units and first
units; we marry those two up. Right now the equipment is in
use. About half of the equipment is Reserve equipment; the
other half is active equipment, but all of the equipment is
being treated and maintained the same way, and it is as a
result of this close integration of the reservists into our
construction battalion (CB) battalion.
General Christianson. And Congressman, if I could address
the question of armor protection for our forces forward given
the environment they are in, particularly in regard to the
humvee and its flat bottom, really I think the vehicle of
choice over there is the stryker, which does not have the same
type of bottom and is much more protective for the forces, over
800 armored security vehicles--which is a special vehicle
designed much like the South African vehicle you mentioned.
And third, we have purchased some of the sport utility
vehicle (SUV) 31s from South Africa, and those who are the most
exposed for this kind of damage are using those vehicles over
there. So we have taken those vehicles right now, and we look
to the future and what kind of land vehicle are we going to
have. In the Army's case, the tactical truck system, how it
looks is going to be driven much by what we learn here, and the
last point that I would leave is still the vehicle that we are
not going to go away from is the heavy armored vehicle, so we
do not see any intent in the future that the Army is going to
get rid of any tanks or Bradleys. But they all need to provide
the level of force and protection that I think both you and I
would like to have.
Mr. Taylor. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Hefley. Mr. Snyder.
Dr. Snyder. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I want to pursue this a little bit about the Guard and
Reserve forces, if I might. About a year and a half ago, when
the 39th Brigade left Arkansas, I went out one of the days when
they were loading up the equipment on rail cars, it was like
the biggest use of rail and moving of equipment since World War
II through Arkansas, and it was just rail car after rail car.
And so they moved all that stuff with them. And now they have
come back, and most of them are now back in Arkansas or
Oklahoma.
So General Christianson, can you explain to me kind of the
trail now that is going to happen in terms of if I am General
Morrow in Arkansas and I am trying to figure out how to replace
this equipment that is either worn out or some left behind, so
who does the adjutant general go to? Does that come directly
through you or--walk me through that, if you would, please.
General Christianson. It is going to be a centrally
controlled program. The Army Materiel Command effective 1
October this year will be completely in charge of this program.
We will work directly with the Army National Guard, G-4, my
equivalent on the Army Guard side, directly with the State
maintenance officer and the units in the organization.
What the unit commander should expect is for the equipment
they have brought back with them, it should go through the same
reset program that all of the active forces have gone through,
no difference. The timing may be different. Where it is done is
going to be controlled by Army material command. So a lot of it
is going to be done locally, but some of it will require
repairs that will have to go to the depot or will have to go to
some kind of a higher level organization.
So our intent is to leverage the combat supplies management
system (CSMS), the mates, all of the technical capability the
Guard has, but to leverage all that in the context of a unified
national program with a single standard. So no one is going to
get something back at a lower standard that comes out of this
program. That is our intent.
Dr. Snyder. So requests from the Guard or the Army Reserve
not come through you, or do they? They eventually get to you?
General Christianson. Yes, sir. They will come to me from
the National Guard, the bureau itself here in Washington, and
then we will bring that all together. And then Army Material
Command is kind of the coordinator of the national program who
will ensure that all of this work is distributed right and that
the standards have been--they obtain the same level of
productivity and standards coming out.
Dr. Snyder. I have not talked to the folks back home about
this issue yet, but as you know, the concept of the enhanced
brigades came up so we could take certain units and make sure
they got the equipment they needed, and I think that probably
has worked reasonably well, but these are the folks that did
get some help with getting equipment several years ago, but
they have now gone overseas. And I think there is some fear
that perhaps now they will be behind getting that replaced. Is
that a reasonable fear to have?
General Christianson. The enhanced brigades are also going
to be modularized as they go through this reset process. They
will come out of this reset process looking different than they
did when they went into this operation. They are going to look
just like the Army modular brigade construct, it will be no
different. If it is a heavy brigade. It will look the same as
all other heavy brigades, so when it comes out of this process,
as its equipment is reset, it will be issued the right kind of
equipment to meet those requirements. I can take for the record
the timeline to know when 39th is actually going through its
modularity window because that will give you and the Adjutant
General (AG) a picture, a window of when they should come out
of this looking like the new organization.
Dr. Snyder. That is all right. You do not need to take that
for the record. I was using them as an example. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Hefley. Mr. Hayes.
Mr. Hayes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
General Wetekam, you referred earlier to the Quadrennial
Defense Review. I want to ask you about the mobility
capabilities study; very very much concerned about the issue of
C-130's, we grounded a bunch of them at Pope. They had to move
one of the 45th National Guard planes to back field. Does the
Mobility Capability Study take into account the
recapitalization and reconstitution issues that you mentioned
in your testimony on page four?
General Wetekam. Sir, it takes into account those issues to
a degree, but it is not at the heart of the Mobility Capability
Study (MCS).
What we expect out of the MCS--and of course, it is not
produced yet--it is essentially a range, if you will, of forces
that will be required, depending on the contingencies. I
certainly share your concerns relative to the existing C-130J
fleet.
In addition to Mobility Capability Study, Air Mobility
Command and the program office, the C-130 program office, are
working hard right now to assess what the data, the new data is
really telling us with regards to the condition of the C-130's,
the older 130's that have the center wing box problems you
referred to, sir.
Mr. Hayes. Well, the data is telling us it is a bad
problem. I think what you are going to find, when you look more
closely, with the grounded birds and wing boxes, it is worse
than we think, and we very badly need to get into spending
money on the new Js.
And when you answered the question for Congressman Taylor,
you mentioned a wing box. Did you say it is better or worse
than we first thought, or did I misunderstand that?
General Wetekam. It is worse than we first thought. We had
initially established a limit at 45,000 equivalent baseline
hours, at which we restricted--put flight restrictions on those
aircraft, but continued to operate them. What we found out in
recent months is that 45,000 equivalent baseline hours is the
point at which we actually need to ground the aircraft, and we
have moved that restriction limit back to 38,000. So it is
worse than we thought it was until a few months ago when we got
essentially new data as we have worked more with the center
wing boxes. It is not getting better; it is going in the wrong
direction.
Mr. Hayes. You are confirming what we had feared.
The MCS study was due at the end of March; now it comes out
at the end of April. I am pretty sure we use that as another
way of letting folks up here know what the situation is. At
Pope, we have got 31 aircraft grounded, seven or eight limited
flying status, 20 percent of the fleet, 84 of which are on
active duty on restricted weight capabilities. We have just got
to keep hammering the fact that recapitalization, that is
keeping our young men off the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan
and increasing safety.
Talk at length about the continued, not just procurement as
it is now outlined--and hopefully, we have corrected the
initial oversight in the budget for continuing production.
Speak to that, and then speak to the issue of what really we
need, and that is more C-130Js than was initially projected.
And anyone else that would like to speak in the range of
whoever uses them, I would love to have your comments for the
record. We need those aircraft badly.
General Wetekam. Yes, sir. Essentially, the production for
the Marine Corps 130's is kind of bridging, if you will, the
production gap until the department can fully assess the
impact, as referred to earlier.
Mr. Hayes. There is a study underway, and I am sure you are
probably aware of it, but I know there is a request, and that
is, the amount of money that is being spent, we are way past
the point of diminishing returns. We are spending money on
aircraft that may fly for a limited amount of time; some that
will never fly again. We need to transfer those tax dollars
into new aircraft with availability and capabilities that are
full time, not limited on weight. So again, any comments on
that? And I yield back my time after that answer.
General Wetekam. Sir, I just say that I share your concerns
with aging aircraft, 130's are a big part of that, but we have
other fleets as well, as you are certainly aware, that are in
the same boat. Our KC-135 fleet, which averages about 43 years
of age----
Mr. Hefley. Do not lose focus. If we can get them on the C-
130's, then obviously have answered on the 15s and the KC-135s
and so on. You are right. Let's give the people some airplanes,
you know?
General Wetekam. Yes, sir.
Mr. Hefley. Dr. Schwarz.
Dr. Schwarz. General Wetekam, we are not picking on you,
sir, but let's talk about A-10s. My understanding is that there
are about 200 A-10s Guard, Reserve and Active left in the
inventory; is that about correct?
General Wetekam. Sir, I believe it is slightly higher than
that. I can tell you in just a moment what the total number is.
We have a total, total inventory including trainers of 357
active and on-guard Reserve.
Dr. Schwarz. That is a lot better than I thought. The plan
is to upgrade, refit, refurbish. What part of that fleet to
keep them active and in the inventory, my understanding, until
maybe the year 2018, 2020?
General Wetekam. Sir, I will have to take that for the
record and provide you an accurate assessment. We do have
upgrade plans for the A-10, but I do need to be sure what
portion of the fleet and what the projected service life is.
[The information referred to can be found in the Appendix
beginning on page 136.]
Dr. Schwarz. I feel about the A-10 the way my friend Mr.
Hayes feels about the C-130J. I have a vested interest in it.
There is an A-10 base in my district, but that A-10 squadron
has flown in every operation this country has been involved in
for the past 15 or 18 years, including the first Gulf War,
Kosovo, the southern no-fly zone, Iraqi Freedom, and they are a
superb outfit.
Then I speak with my friends who are both retired and
active officers in the Army and the Marine Corps. When you talk
about plans the Air Force might have to take the A-10 out of
the inventory and replace it with another close air support
aircraft, they are unhappy campers.
So my interest is, and the assurance, that I want, if you
can possibly give me, is that keeping the A-10's in the
inventory active and in support of our Marine Corps and Army
troops on the ground is--that is the plan, that is ongoing.
General Wetekam. Yes, sir. We have long-term plans for the
A-10. We will, as I said for the record, provide you with the
detailed force structure laid out for the outyears. But we
certainly share the Army and the Marine Corps' enthusiasm for
the A-10 as well. It has been a great performer for us.
[The information referred to can be found in the Appendix
beginning on page 136.]
Dr. Schwarz. Thank you very kindly, General. I would yield
back my time right now. I have another question later.
Mr. Hefley. Mr. Reyes.
Mr. Reyes. Thank you, gentlemen and thank you for being
here.
The first question I have, on the occasions that I have had
to visit in theater, we have been told various things about how
fast the equipment is wearing out. Is it accurate that the
equipment is wearing out five times faster than we anticipated
because of the harsh environment?
General Christianson. I am not sure that it is accurate
that it is wearing out five times faster. I think it is
accurate we are using it five times more than we would in
peacetime operation, training operations. How much wear is
being done kind of depends a little bit on the equipment.
As I mentioned earlier, with wheeled vehicles that we have
added a lot of extra armor to, so it is carrying extra weight.
I believe they are wearing out much faster.
What we are finding out on the aircraft--when we have come
back for those aircraft that we have completely reset--that
there is not as much wear as we thought. Part of that is
because I believe our soldiers learned from Desert Storm and
took actions as part of these operations to avoid some of the
damages we saw on those helicopters during Desert Storm.
The same thing has been applied to some of our ground
systems. We have better filtration systems. The maintenance
checks and services the soldiers are doing forward, I think,
have helped to help alleviate some of the wear. Not the usage.
The usage is five times higher than normal. But the wear
depends on other things. As I mentioned, we are not seeing that
in the stuff we are resetting right now, with the exception of
wheeled vehicles, which I think are wearing out at a higher
rate than our other equipment.
Mr. Reyes. In that same vein, what are the lessons that we
have learned? Is somebody in a position to not only evaluate
but to make recommendations and maybe implement changes to
either our logistics system or the design of the vehicles that
are wearing much faster? What is being done in that area?
General Christianson. Exactly what you said is what is
happening. We are taking the lessons learned and applying them.
The lessons learned after Desert Storm were applied primarily
to aviation and paid huge dividends in this operation.
The aircraft that came back out of this last operation, as
I mentioned, the wear and tear was much less than we thought.
In addition, other lessons that are learned are being applied
during the RESET. So if we are able to put improved
capabilities on those helicopters, better screening systems for
dust, better capabilities for cleaning. We are doing that as
part of the RESET program.
Better training for the soldiers, what extra steps should
you take in this kind of environment when you are operating?
Those are also lessons that are being applied every day at the
point of the sphere. So we are doing exactly that.
I think where we see the results is in the equipment
forward. So even though the equipment is being used at a much
higher rate than normal, we are seeing readiness rates that are
94, 95 percent almost across the fleet. With aviation, almost
all of our aviation fleets are well above the Army standard in
the deployed area despite their high usage. So I think they are
applying many of the lessons.
Mr. Reyes. What about some of the information that we get
that parts are taking a long time, vehicles are deadlined for
parts and are down an inordinate amount of time.
What do you know about that? What are you doing about that
and where are we today about that?
General Christianson. In the two and a half years that we
have been in operation over there, there have been significant
changes to the way the supply distribution system works. As you
know, there is--there are a lot of items that are moving by
ground and it is a long ways, so we have used a lot of repair
time, a lot of time just waiting for supplies to be delivered.
But today I can report that for those items that are ordered
and delivered by air, the turn-around time is 18 days on
average over there.
The biggest problem we are having is the distribution
locally, because when it gets up into Iraq and then gets out to
the forward operating basis, those distribution runs are all
made in coordination with all of the maneuver forces. They take
into consideration the security environment, as you can well
imagine.
But we are getting good turn-around times in supply.
Eighteen days is very, very good. Now this is compared to
almost twice as long a year and a half ago. So we are doing
very, very well.
The other indication that the repair part situation is good
is on aviation. We have very few helicopters that are down
waiting for repair parts. We have about 10 percent of our
helicopters that are in a phased maintenance. After so many
hours, they bring them in for a phase maintenance. I think this
is also indicative of a good supply system and lessons learned
and applied in this operating environment. We are watching it
every day. We watch the supply turn-around times every single
day.
Mr. Reyes. Are these--excuse me, go ahead, General.
General Huly. Sir, in the Marine Corps, perhaps in the
early stages of the campaign, there might have been some supply
problems or some delays. But I have heard of no reports of any
recently and readiness rates don't bear out that they have got
a problem.
Our readiness, like the Army's, is way into the 90 percent
for our ground vehicles. So I think they have got the supplies.
They have got the maintenance capabilities to keep things
running. Our aviation rates over there as well remain high.
This is because we do have the forward in store supplies and
the maintenance effort over there.
Conversely, however, though, our maintenance on the CONUS-
based aircraft is declining. It is declining at the expense,
because we are putting the effort into keeping things forward
deployed. That is where the emphasis is right now.
Mr. Reyes. Mr. Chairman, can I ask one quick follow-up by
way of documentation? I was going to ask, are there reports
that can give us a comparison of how things were early on in
this conflict versus where they are today? Could we get copies
so we could take a look at them?
General Christianson. Congressman, I will take that for the
record, and I will give you some background. We track that all
the time.
I wanted to add one thing that I forgot that is very
important. In the last couple of years, one of the things, one
of initiatives that we have taken that has paid huge dividends
is we now have satellite connectivity to the very forward edge
of the battlefield for logisticians.
So before where we take several days for a request for a
repair part to get back here to the United States, today it is
happening in less than half a day. That makes a huge difference
in the ability to support the forces. Because now the people
who are back here supporting are able to respond rapidly. The
last point I would make is we also have a supply capability in
Kuwait.
About 35 to 40 percent of the repair parts that are needed
in Iraq are coming from that warehouse in Kuwait. So that
shortens the supply pipeline significantly and helped us in
turn-around time, but we will get you the information and you
can see what happened.
[The information referred to can be found in the Appendix
beginning on page 135.]
Mr. Reyes. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Hefley. Mr. Miller.
Mr. Miller. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to go
back to the C-130 question, and particularly the wing boxes.
Can you, in particular, General, talk about how many aircraft
are currently affected by wing box cracks? Given the rate that
we have seen over the last year with the problem, can you
forecast what we may run into this year? I ask all this to go
to the point of the company or companies that produces the wing
boxes, do they have the capacity? Are they producing fast
enough to be able to replace what needs to be done so that we
don't run into a crisis in regards to replacing those parts.
General Wetekam. Yes, sir. First off, the first part of
your question is we have--and these numbers change, because as
we operate aircraft they obviously move into that over 38,000-
hour category and then the over 45,000 or 45,000-hour base line
category.
But my most current data is that we have 35 aircraft that
are over 45,000 hours and so essentially are restricted from
all operations at this point. In addition to that, there is
another 56 aircraft, and this includes also C-130Hs, it is not
just the E models, but some of the earlier H models. Fifty six
aircraft that are in that restricted area where they can
operate, but they have significant limitations on maneuvering
and on carriage, weight carriage.
I will take for the record what our projection is for the
next year. There are a number of aircraft obviously that will
be moving into those categories, and I will take that for the
record.
Relative to the production capacity, we think that it is
about 36 per year, according to the manufacturer, 36 center
wing boxes that could be produced. And so--but it is not just a
case of producing the wing boxes, it is also a case of having
the depot capacity then to replace the wing box. We couldn't do
36 simultaneously, and we are still assessing that.
So the wing box production capacity itself would seem to be
adequate. But we haven't fully assessed what the depot capacity
could be and how fast we could put those aircraft, particularly
those 36 that are already in the--or the 35, rather, that are
in the grounded category through the depot.
Mr. Miller. Does the work actually have to be done at a
depot. Can it be done privately?
General Wetekam. Yes, sir. I say depot, but that could be
either public sector depot. We do in C-130 work in both Ogden,
Utah and Warner Robbins, Georgia. There are a number of private
sector depots that do contract C-130 work and have in the past
as well. I would suspect that it would be a combination of the
two.
Mr. Miller. I would hope, so because we have a facility in
Crestview that does a lot of work. When I look at the numbers,
I see that the private sector does--not that I am against
depots at all, but it seems that they are turning out equipment
faster within budget, and I want to make sure that we don't
just force everything back into the depots to get the work
done.
General Wetekam. No, sir. In a situation like this, where
we have an operational restriction, we would seek to repair it,
you know, address it as quickly as we could, using whatever
capacity is available.
Mr. Miller. Very good. Thank you, sir.
Admiral, can we go to the water for just a minute.
Admiral Hugel. Yes, sir.
Mr. Miller. You may have addressed it before I got here.
But talking about the Kennedy and the plans to retire the
carrier does, this cause a capability issue as we reconstitute
our forces? What happens when the Kitty Hawk comes home to be
retrofitted, you know, during that period of time?
Admiral Hugel. In the near term, Kennedy was already
planned to be in a maintenance period, and so we had enough
other carrier strike group capability in place to continue to
supply our six plus two carrier strike group rate, and that is
in accordance with the fleet strike plan.
We are looking now over the longer term to determine
whether we will be able to continue supplying six plus two
carrier strike group readiness or something less than that with
Kennedy out of the mix.
A piece of that work is understanding the--not only the
capability that we need to have deployed but the presence that
we need to have. Those two things, coupled together, to make
sure that we are meeting the combatant command (COCOM)
requirements forward.
We are additionally looking at Kitty Hawk and the Kitty
Hawk replacement. The plans are not finalized yet on replacing
Kitty Hawk. So further study required there before we announce
where we are going.
Mr. Miller. You--I have heard the discussion, in regards,
if I might, for just a second, Mr. Chairman. I know my time is
out. In a 30-second nutshell, I have heard the term
``mothball'' used in regards to the Kennedy. What does that
mean?
Admiral Hugel. We have fundamentally two different kinds of
things we do with a ship after we inactivate it, Congressman.
One is to mothball the ship, basically to lay the ship up in a
condition so that if we decide somewhere down the road we need
to reactivate the ship, the systems have been dried out, the
ship has been dehumidified so that rust and the deterioration
of the hull life components doesn't get away from us. The other
alternative is to scrap the ship, to cut it up, and that is a
pretty final action.
So mothballing or demobilizing the ship allows us to put
the ship away, but to recover the ship if somewhere down the
road we decide we need the ship back in the inventory.
Mr. Miller. I understand when you--the reasoning, I guess,
behind from a financial standpoint. But can you quasi-mothball
something and turn it into a training carrier?
Admiral Hugel. Quasi-mothballing means taking pieces of the
ship completely out of action, sealing the compartments and
locking it up. If we were to use a ship for a training asset
you need to have access to the entire ship. If there is a flood
in the ship, you need to get to wherever the problem might be,
and so it is impractical to partially mothball a ship and
continue to operate it, sir.
Mr. Miller. Okay. I have got some other questions in that
regard, but I will pass them too you.
Admiral Hugel. Yes, sir.
Mr. Hefley. Mrs. Davis.
Ms. Davis. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, thank you to you all for being
here, and for your service, and particularly to General Huly.
We miss you, and miss your service in San Diego.
I wanted to turn just a second to what could be, I guess,
the most personal of all readiness questions, having met with a
group of Marines just a few days ago in San Diego, who were
being treated at Balboa Hospital.
One of their big concerns was that their weapons jammed,
and that even despite their cleaning the weapons constantly,
that they still are having a lot of problems, it is hard to get
a replacement, and they also mentioned that they would like to
have a side arm available to them so that when their weapons
jammed that they have a backup.
Could you tell me how you would respond to them when they
make those requests, and what we are doing about that?
General Huly. Ma'am, this is the first that I have heard of
any weapons jamming in combat or in any training leading it to
it. If it is so, it hasn't been a problem that has been brought
to our attention. I am sure if they are saying it happened to
them, then we will check it out. So I am going to have to take
your question for the record. I will find out which units
specifically and to see what the problems were.
[The information referred to can be found in the Appendix
beginning on page 137.]
Ms. Davis. Okay, I can help you with that. Thank you.
General Huly. Thank you.
Ms. Davis. And also I just wanted to ask then about the
tracking of war-related expenses and equipment, do we do that
separately or are all those war-related expenses tracked in one
way and other military tracking expenditures are tracked
another way. Do we separate those out or are they together?
General Huly. I can speak for the Marine Corps in that we
are capturing all of our war-related expenses and our costs
separately at this time from our normal operating costs. We had
a very good foundation of what our normal operating costs were
preOIF and preOEF.
We were pretty much able to capture what our costs were,
not only for our own information and managing internally, but
to be able to present it to the Congress and to the Department
of Defense to be able to justify what it is that we are asking
for. So, yes, ma'am, we do break them out separately.
Ms. Davis. Is that true for all the services?
General Christianson. Yes, ma'am. We have to track our
expenses separately. I know that if an auditor came in to look
they probably wouldn't think we are doing it as well as we
should. But we are trying to keep them separate for many, many
good reasons. We have to do that.
General Wetekam. The true is for the Air Force as well,
ma'am.
Admiral Hugel. Yes, ma'am. Within the capability of our
ability to distinguish an underway day for the war versus just
being an underway for other reasons, we do try to distinguish
those costs. Certainly we program in budget and predict with
models that are tied to baseline requirements and then wartime
requirements above that.
Ms. Davis. Because, I am glad to hear that then because
there was some question of whether or not DOD allowed that, but
that is the way that you do that.
It is my understanding that in 2004 the supplemental
requested 2.8 billion addressed to equipment and wear and then
2005 supplemental was about 12 billion for that purpose. Now
that we are in 2006, if we have a pretty good idea about what
those amounts are, if you are separating them out, then why
don't we include those from your point of view in the 2006
budget request, which will be separate from the supplemental?
General Christianson. In accordance with the Office of the
Secretary Defenses (OSD's) policy, the incremental costs of the
war we put into the supplemental, the emergency supplemental
request. The problem with trying to anticipate it, and we do
the best we can when we build a supplemental requirement, is we
are not exactly sure what is going to come back next year.
If the security situation changes up or down, the units
that were returned or the units we will send over will not be
the ones that we currently are planning. So we could get a lot
more equipment back. So, for example, if a security situation
improves dramatically over the next six to eight months by the
end of this calendar year, we could see a lot more of the
equipment we have left behind returning here.
If that happens, there will be a larger amount of RESET
required next fiscal year than we are currently planning,
because currently we know we are only planning for the units to
come back that we think are going to come back.
So we are kind of in a little bit of a time crunch. I know,
Mr. Chairman, you had asked earlier, what is the resource that
really drives all of this? Time is the resource that we really
don't have any control over. So we--if the budget goes in and
it has to be in by this time, and we have--we don't know what
force structures will remain in theater until after that time,
we have no choice but to ask for it in a supplement.
Ms. Davis. Where do we factor in equipment for the Iraqi
Army?
General Christianson. Most of the equipment that I know--
some of the equipment we have given the Iraqi Army. Some of our
prepositioned trucks, for example, that are very old models
that we don't want in the Army anymore. About 1,215 we gave to
the Iraqi Army. We were compensated, recompensated from
Coalition Provisional Authority (Iraq) (CPA) for that.
Most of the other stuff that I know is being purchased
commercially and is not equipment that the Army, at least in
the Army's case, the Army is not giving them. It is outside the
Army.
Ms. Davis. Great. Thank you.
Admiral Hugel, I was going to ask you just about the sea
swapping and what we anticipate down the road. We know there
are a lot of plusses of that, certainly, but the downside in
terms of readiness--and if we don't have any more time, Mr.
Chairman, I will stop. But that was a question that perhaps
others haven't asked about.
General Huly. Yes, ma'am, we have done sea swap pilots on
the west, for a couple of West Coast ships now. We are
embarking on sea swap pilots for ships based on the East Coast.
We continue to learn from each of those sea swap exercises the
upside and the downside, and there appear to be quite a few
upside things.
So I think when the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO)
testified earlier on what the future force structure
requirements in terms of number of ships might be, he mentioned
sea swap as an issue and an effort that we are going to
continue to explore. Depending on our success at employing sea
swap, depending on how much of the fleet we can do sea swap
with, we will eventually dictate the size of the force that we
need because of the extra forward deployed operational
availability we get from those platforms when we are able to
swap crews back and forth.
So far, we have learned many good lessons from sea swap.
The East Coast ships will add to that collection.
Ms. Davis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Hefley. Mr. Evans. Mr. Evans has some questions for the
record. We will do that. Do any of--any of the rest of you have
any questions for the record as well? We will do that.
Are there any final questions or comments?
If not, the committee stands adjourned.
Thank you, gentlemen, very, very, much.
[Whereupon, at 3:25 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD
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QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. HEFLEY
Mr. Hefley. General Huly, of the various variables impacting the
ability of your service to accomplish its reset requirements, which is
the most difficult to manage or attain?
General Huly. The most difficult variable impacting the Marine
Corps' ability to accomplish resetting is maintaining an adequate
inventory of equipment. This is because the Marine Corps must maintain
sufficient assets in the Area of Responsibility (AOR) to fight the war
while continuing to train for future deployments and maintain
sufficient prepositioned assets to be ready to engage in future
operations.
The Marine Corps has had to take equipment from home stations,
training schoolhouses, our Maritime Prepositioned Squadrons and Global
Preposition Program (Norway) in order to supply deploying units. All of
the equipment deployed in the AOR is undergoing use at a rate five to
eight times greater than average peacetime utilization in a challenging
environment. This has accelerated aging of those assets and our need to
procure replacements equipment at a far faster rate just to stay even.
We have employed cross-leveling of equipment across the Marine
Corps to mitigate the effects of heavy equipment use/loss in the Global
War on Terror (GWOT). Cross-leveling alone will not be sufficient to
meet GWOT operational needs and maintain essential readiness over time.
Mr. Hefley. Of the various variables impacting the ability of your
service to accomplish its reset requirements, which is the most
difficult to manage or attain?
Admiral Hugel. The most challenging variables are the safety of our
personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan, and transit time to rotate equipment
to and from CONUS.
Mr. Hefley. Of the various variables impacting the ability of your
service to accomplish its reset requirements, which is the most
difficult to manage or attain?
General Wetekam. The Air Force faces a number of significant
reconstitution challenges. The most difficult challenge facing the Air
Force is recapitalizing and reconstituting our aging aircraft fleet. In
the mid-1960's, our average fleet age was around 8\1/2\ years, by
Desert Storm it had climbed to 17 years, and today's fleet average age
is over 23 years.
Managing and sustaining these aging airframes strains our resources
and personnel as well as our supply systems. In addition, harsh
operating environments and increased ops tempo lead to extensive wear
and tear on aircraft systems. The sustained high demand for the
capabilities provided by fleets comprised of primarily older aircraft
continues to delay our ability to reconstitute while accelerating the
need for re-capitalization. Also, critical to operating aging fleets is
the cost to maintain and sustain them. Although there are no current
constraints regarding our depot capacity, it is crucial that we
maintain adequate levels of funding for Depot Purchased Equipment
Maintenance (DPEM) and Contractor Logistics Support (CLS). We have seen
a steady increase in the DPEM requirement with a comparable increase in
DPEM funding which has grown from $1.6B in FY00 to $3.3B in FY04, and
CLS funding which has grown from $1.8B to $2.5B in the same period.
One program we developed to help address aging aircraft issues is
the Fleet Viability Board (FVB). We chartered a recurring FVB to
provide an unbiased assessment of fleet health. Along with the Fleet
Viability Board assessments, we must continue to divest our oldest
legacy aircraft to free resources for reinvestment in newer aircraft.
This allows us to take advantage of new technology and increasing
capabilities.
Thank you for your continued support of the Air Force.
Mr. Hefley. Of the services that have stay-behind or remain-behind
equipment in Iraq or Afghanistan, how much of that equipment is likely
to ever return for repair?
General Huly. The Marine Corps recently conducted an assessment of
the Demand on Equipment in theater. This assessment took into
consideration actual and projected combat losses and heightened stress
placed on equipment due to the OPTEMPO and environmental impact.
Equipment that cannot be repaired in theater is transported from Iraq
back to CONUS for evaluation and induction into the depot maintenance
cycle. For equipment that is experiencing heightened usage, the
objective is to rotate it systematically to replace tired equipment
with fresh equipment before it becomes unserviceable/irreparable.
To date, the USMC has had two ships sets of gear return to CONUS
for replacement/refurbishment with three additional ships scheduled for
return over the next several months. We continue to monitor equipment,
the replenishment cycle, and will leverage opportune lift for air
return of retrograde assets as well as surface return for ground
equipment assets.
We recognize the need to automate this decision process and are
developing a tool that integrates equipment usage rates, combat losses,
and cost factors from our operating forces, program managers, and our
Marine Corps Logistics Command. This Total Life Cycle Management Tool
will provide a mechanism from which future sound, prudent, mission-
focused Marine Corps management decisions can be made regarding
equipment maintenance and/or new acquisitions.
Mr. Hefley. Of the services that have stay-behind or remain-behind
equipment in Iraq or Afghanistan, how much of that equipment is likely
to ever return for repair?
Admiral Hugel. Unless the equipment is deemed beyond economical
repair or suffers from extensive battle damage, we anticipate all of
the equipment to return for servicing. Aviation Support Equipment in
part due to quantity and size, is rotated via Maritime Prepositioning
Force (MPF) ships as the Marine Air Wing (MAW) rotates into theatre.
Aircraft are rotated back in keeping with their peace time established
depot maintenance schedule. Seabee equipment is also rotated primarily
through MPF ships.
Mr. Hefley. Of the services that have stay-behind or remain-behind
equipment in Iraq or Afghanistan, how much of that equipment is likely
to ever return for repair?
General Wetekam. Most equipment used by the Air Force is sustained
under a maintenance concept that doesn't require it to return to the
United States for repair. Air Force equipment is used, inspected,
serviced and maintained at the location of use until the equipment is
neither no longer necessary or has completed it's life cycle. If the
equipment is no longer necessary and is still serviceable, it is
reallocated to other valid users within the Air Force. If the equipment
has reached the end of it's lifecycle, it is demilitarized (if
necessary) and disposed of via established disposal processes. For that
very small population of equipment items requiring return to the United
States for repair, e.g., materiel handling equipment, selected
communications-electronics equipment, etc., the Air Force returns that
equipment to the government depot system or private sector contractors
for repair and/or overhaul.
Mr. Hefley. To what extent do you have the ability to perform depot
maintenance in Iraq, Afghanistan or Kuwait?
General Huly. Currently limited depot maintenance is being
conducted in theater. The lack of infrastructure inhibits our ability
to create this capability. However, the ability of CONUS based depots
to respond to GWOT requirements remains high.
The Marine Corps and the Army are partnering to leverage heavy
maintenance support for ground vehicles in Iraq. The first facility to
implement this partnership is the Army's HMMWV Service Center. The
Service Center will provide preventive, corrective, and heavy
maintenance support in several locations throughout the area. In
addition to the HMMWV, 13 systems that are common to both the Marine
Corps and Army have been identified as candidates for joint repair
capability. Currently the Marine Corps units in theater have the
resident maintenance capability and expertise to sustain its units up
to depot level maintenance. We will continue to expand this partnership
and leverage common repair facilities where at all possible.
Marine aviation has a limited depot-like repair capability in the
Iraq Theater. We have facilities in theater with depot artisans; this
provides capabilities tailored to the requirements of the deployed
rotary wing units (fixed wing depot capability is almost exclusively
resident in CONUS). Complete full depot-level maintenance is not done
in Iraq; as such work requires infrastructure and tools not available
there. For example, we have artisans in theater that can conduct
aircraft battle damage assessments and some associated repairs, as well
as structural analysis and deep cleaning. Standard depot work such as
complete rebuilding of components, however, cannot usually be done at
these limited facilities. A Memorandum Of Agreement with the US Army
has allowed us to leverage their depot-like capabilities in Afghanistan
when required to support Marine aircraft detachments operating there.
Mr. Hefley. To what extent do you have the ability to perform depot
maintenance in Iraq, Afghanistan or Kuwait?
Admiral Hugel. For Aviation Support Equipment, we maintain the
ability to do emergent field depot maintenance and battle damage repair
using flyaway depot artisans in theatre both ashore and afloat. Battle
damage or emergent repairs that require extensive depot rework must be
returned to CONUS. Normal peacetime scheduled depot level maintenance
is performed only in CONUS. For Navy Seabee equipment, we do not
perform depot level maintenance in Iraq, Afghanistan or Kuwait.
Mr. Hefley. To what extent do you have the ability to perform depot
maintenance in Iraq, Afghanistan or Kuwait?
General Wetekam. The Air Force neither has nor requires physical
depot capabilities in Iraq, Afghanistan or Kuwait. Depot maintenance is
the heavy repair work that requires specialized equipment, facilities
and skills not found within our deployed maintenance forces. As a
result, the Air Force returns equipment requiring repair and/or
overhaul to organic and contract depot repair facilities throughout the
globe. On a selective basis, theater maintenance is complemented by
deployable expeditionary depot maintenance support via Combat Logistics
Support Squadron (CLSS) teams, Contract Field Teams (CFTs) and/or Depot
Field Teams (DFTs).
Mr. Hefley. To what extent do you have the ability to perform depot
maintenance in Iraq, Afghanistan or Kuwait?
General Christianson. We do not perform depot level maintenance on
the equipment in theater. Rather, the U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC)
and its subordinate commands have established Forward Repair Activities
(FRA) which provide a repair and return capability and a flexible
response to urgent requirements, such as the application of Add-on
Armor kits. Employees from our depots and commercial contractors
perform the work at the FRAs. The FRAs are specialized and vary in size
based upon the Warfighers' requirements. Supporting aviation, ground
vehicles and electronic equipment, these FRAs are located in Kuwait,
Afghanistan, and at three sites in Iraq.
Mr. Hefley. What is the difference between the Army's RESET program
and the Recapitalization program?
General Christianson. The Army's Recapitalization program is depot
repair, based on an extensive maintenance scope of work, that rebuilds
our equipment to a near, zero time/zero mile condition. Through this
effort, we extend the service life of our aging fleets. The result of
the Recapitalization program is sustained system readiness through
improved reliability and availability.
The Army's Reset program is a series of actions to restore
returning units to a desired level of combat capability. Returning
equipment is repaired to address the damage inflicted by heavy usage in
a desert environment. Some of this repair work is below depot level
maintenance, accomplished in the unit motor pools or other maintenance
facilities. Some equipment requires work that can only be accomplished
with the skills and equipment available in depot facilities. The high
operational tempo in theater places some equipment under great stress.
In effect, a year operating within theater equates to five or six years
of operation in peacetime for some equipment. To mitigate this
accelerated aging of the fleets, we are applying the Recapitalization
scope of work to the returning equipment in the worst condition. Reset
also includes the procurement of new equipment to replace battle losses
and equipment that is not economically repairable.
______
QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. REYES
Mr. Reyes. Are there reports that can give us a comparison of
readiness rates at the beginning of the conflict versus now?
General Christianson. During the initial phase of the conflict, the
Army experienced readiness rates below the DA Goal for some critical
combat weapon systems. During this time, readiness was challenging
because of the supply pipeline and theater distribution system in an
immature theater. The theater is currently matured and many of the
initial shortcomings have been resolved. For the past year, the Army
has shown a positive trend in maintaining its critical combat systems
(M1, M2/3, M109A6, MLRS, PATRIOT, AH-64, UH-60, OH-58D & CH-47D)
resulting in exceeding the Department of the Army (DA) Goal (90 percent
for ground and 75 percent for air) in the past six months for all
systems except the AH-64 and CH-47 in the OIF/OEF theater of operation.
Although the AH-64 and CH-47D trends are slightly below the Army goal,
the materiel readiness did not hamper any operational missions. The
Army has established Forward Repair Activities, Field Service
Representatives and Contract Maintenance to assist in maintaining the
combat weapon systems in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in which
track vehicles are being used at five times and aviation two to three
times their peacetime OPTEMPO. The theater has the highest priority for
CL IX repair parts and any systemic materiel or maintenance issues are
discussed at the senior leaders' weekly HQDA VTC with the theater. We
have made significant progress in filling supply requests by fielding
satellite connectivity to the very forward edge of the battlefield for
logisticians. Before this improvement, it took several days, on
average, for a repair part request to be sent to CONUS. Today, it takes
less than a half day. This has made a significant difference in the
ability to support deployed forces. Additionally, the Army and DLA have
established substantial supply facilities in Kuwait. Thirty-five to
forty percent of repair parts requests required in Iraq are shipped
from Kuwait. The emphasis on theater readiness, however, has hampered
efforts to maintain readiness in non-deployed units. As RESET of
returning units is conducted and depot level programs, to include
RECAP, are conducted, the Army expects readiness in non-deployed units
to also improve.
______
QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. TAYLOR
Mr. Taylor. Status and thoughts on the program to replace fuel pods
on the C-130.
General Huly. The USMC is actively focused on rapidly upgrading the
refueling pods to address the issues noted by Mr. Taylor. The refueling
pods issues constituted a Part I deficiency identified during
Operational Test and Evaluation. Currently (as of June 2005) five
aircraft have the upgraded refueling pod system. Four of these aircraft
are located at MCAS Miramar, and the other is the test aircraft at Pax
River (VX-20). There is a detailed plan to perform this upgrade on all
remaining aircraft; we expect to upgrade approximately two aircraft per
month, which should complete the upgrades by June 2006.
______
QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. HAYES
Mr. Hayes. You are confirming what we had feared. The MCS study was
due at the end of March; now it comes out at the end of April. I am
pretty sure we use that as another way of letting folks up here know
what the situation is. At Pope, we have got 31 aircraft grounded, seven
or eight limited flying status, 20 percent of the fleet, 84 of which
are on active duty on restricted weight capabilities. We have just got
to keep hammering the fact that recapitalization, that is keeping our
young men off the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan and increasing safety.
Talk at length about the continued, not just procurement as it is
now outlined-and hopefully, we have corrected the initial oversight in
the budget for continuing production. Speak to that, and then speak to
the issue of what really we need, and that is more C-130Js than was
initially projected. And anyone else that would like to speak in the
range of whoever uses them, I would love to have your comments for the
record. We need those aircraft badly.
General Wetekam. As you know, the C-130 has proven to be one of the
most effective air lifters in the Air Force since the first A model
entered the inventory in the late 1950's to the current E, H and J
models. It has been involved in every major conflict from Vietnam to
Iraqi Freedom. The stated requirement for C-130 combat delivery intra-
theater airlift is a minimum of 421 E/H equivalents, a mix of C-130 E,
H and J model aircraft. In order to meet that requirement, the Air
Force is currently modernizing the intra-theater fleet through the C-
130 Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) and will continue to
recapitalize the oldest most problematic C-130s with the C-130Js.
Moreover, the Air Force, through the MCS and QDR, as well as the Joint
Intra-theater Airlift Study, will refine the intra-theater airlift
requirement and force mix for the total force.
______
QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY DR. SCHWARZ
Dr. Schwarz. The plan is to upgrade, refit, refurbish. What part of
that fleet will keep them active and in the inventory, my
understanding, until maybe the year 2018, 2020?
General Wetekam. The plan is to upgrade the entire A-10 inventory
of 356 aircraft (203 active duty, 102 Air National Guard, 51 Air Force
Reserve Component) with the A-10 Service Life Extension Program (SLEP)
and Precision Engagement (PE).
The A-10 SLEP extends the service life to 16,000 operational flight
hours, supporting operations through the aircraft retirement in the
2023 timeframe. The SLEP program is designed to increase the A-10
service life through inspections and consolidated structural
improvements such as repairs to cracks, removal of corrosion from fuel
tanks and replacement of wing leading edges. Estimated cost for the
SLEP program is about $2.1M per aircraft for FY05-FY11.
Precision Engagement greatly enhances A-10 operations on the
digital battlefield by improving aircraft avionics, integrating a
tactical datalink: and a targeting pod, and adding J-series weapons
capability (global positioning satellite guided weapons). This $322M
program provides significantly greater combat capability for the A-10
and completes in FY09. Precision Engagement upgraded aircraft are
designated A-10C.
The A-10 program also has $156M in FY06 through FY08 for system
development and demonstration of an engine kit designed to improve
engine performance. A decision to procure the engine kits ($1.8B) will
be made during the FY08 POM cycle.
______
QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. MILLER
Mr. Miller. Can you, in particular, General, talk about how many
aircraft are currently affected by wing box cracks? Given the rate that
we have seen over the last year with the problem, can you forecast what
we may run into this year? I ask all this to go to the point of the
company or companies that produces the wing boxes, do they have the
capacity? Are they producing fast enough to be able to replace what
needs to be done so that we don't run into a crisis in regards to
replacing those parts.
General Wetekam. As of 20 April 2005, there are 57 aircraft
restricted and 31 aircraft grounded. Another four aircraft that
experienced grounding center wing box cracks have been retired.
Our forecast estimates 6 additional aircraft will reach the 45K
Equivalent Baseline Hours (EBH) threshold and be grounded, and 12
additional aircraft will reach the 38K EBH threshold and be restricted,
in the next 12 months.
______
QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MS. DAVIS OF CALIFORNIA
Ms. Davis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, thank you to you all for being
here, and for your service, and particularly to General Huly. We miss
you, and miss your service in San Diego. I wanted to turn just a second
to what could be, I guess, the most personal of all readiness
questions, having met with a group of Marines just a few days ago in
San Diego, who were being treated at Balboa Hospital.
One of their big concerns was that their weapons jammed, and that
even despite their cleaning the weapons constantly, that they still are
having a lot of problems, it is hard to get a replacement, and they
also mentioned that they would like to have a side arm available to
them so that when their weapons jammed that they have a backup.
Could you tell me how you would respond to them when they make
those requests, and what we are doing about that?
General Huly. We have queried numerous Marines currently deployed
in theater and are not aware of any jamming issues with the Modular
Weapon System (M16A4 or M4). No reports of weapons jamming have been
received and no documentation of not being able to get replacements is
available. The Army recently conducted a lubrication study with Marine
Corps participation for small arms due to numerous claims that its
existing lubricant was causing malfunctions due to the environment it
was being employed in (sandy, dusty). This lubrication study found that
the lubricant that is currently in use is, in fact, better than
lubricants commercially available for weapons.
The Marine Corps has had an issue with M9 service pistols jamming
and an investigation into the cause of the jamming revealed the problem
to be a magazine issue. The root cause of the M9 jamming was found to
be a surface finish on some contracted magazines that had been issued
and these magazines are being removed from the inventory and M9
magazines are being replaced by an improved magazine with a better
surface finish and improved feeding reliability.
In reference to having a backup weapon available, Marines are not
routinely issued secondary or ``backup'' weapons. Some key billets,
which employ crew served weapons, are issued a secondary weapon because
the primary weapon is not intended for use by or protection of an
individual.