Experts: Not a single Army Combat team left ready to deploy

Experts: Not a single Army Combat team left ready to deploy

A group of national security experts formed by Democratic leadership has reported to Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) that, "there is not a single non-deployed Army Brigade Combat Team in the United States that is ready to deploy," RAW STORY has learned.

"The bottom line," the group concludes in a letter to Democratic leadership, "is that our Army currently has no ready, strategic reserve."

"More than two-thirds of the Army National Guard's 34 brigades are not combat ready, mostly because of equipment shortages that will cost up to $21 billion to correct, the top National Guard general said Tuesday," the Associated Press reported today.

More...

Anybody care to debunk this with sources to the contrary?

psst...loam...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

covered here already...

Oooops....sorry.

RATS?

MODS, Please close.

[edit on 2-8-2006 by loam]

ER, could you please keep it open for those of us that don't have access to RATS? - don't want to reply until I am sure it will be open....

I agree with rockpuck!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, no one has closed the thread yet...and since the other is in RATS and not freely available to all members...I say post away!

Originally posted by loam
Anybody care to debunk this with sources to the contrary?

Yeah, I'll take a crack at it. For one, the title of the article is misleading, because the article speaks of the NG, not the Reserve of Active Army forces. Though this isnt your fault, you just posted the actual title of the article as seen on Raw Story. While a Generals assessment of shortcomings in equipment and training of his men should be taken seriously, part of the problem is the fact that evidently the NG unit commanders have possibly been faking readiness reports to Washington to keep their units funding. While I have found only one source to this so far, from the USA Today, Im not going to bank on it being 100% accurate. And the fact that the article itself states that it is not all, but 2/3rds of all that are not ready for combat due to equipment shortfalls.

But what I find really funny is that it is Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid saying that the Bush Administration has underfunded the military. After this administration has clearly been upping spending in that category, supported by guess who Pelosi and Reid both. I smell politics here.

sounds like the U.S is going downhill...

Duplication between RATS and open fora is permissible, as far as I know.



Theres a difference between 'None left' and 'many, i think, are not equipped all that well'.


www.globalsecurity.org...

As of Jan 05:
US Army Active Combat Brigades/ACRs: 37 Deployed: 10
US Guard Combat Brigades/ACRs: 39 Deployed: 4

The original article says there are 34 Guards, which is what the GS.org page cites as slated for 2007. From that then, projected for 2007:

US Army Active Combat Brigades/ACRs: 43/48 Deployed: 11
US Guard Combat Brigades/ACRs: 34 Deployed: 1

This excludes the Marines, Navy, Airforce, even Coast Guard and State Militias.

Orig. Article:
A group of national security experts formed by Democratic leadership

About as trustworthy as a panel convened by the Republican leadership, or aan independant commitee comissioned by the CFR, no?

porky
sounds like the U.S is going downhill...

Looks more like partisan politics, or a plot to deceive the world on US warmaking capacity.

[edit on 2-8-2006 by Nygdan]

I read what may be the same story online today.

The comments by Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum came in the wake of disclosures by Army officials, analysts and members of Congress that two-thirds of the active Army's brigades are not rated ready for war.

"I am further behind or in an even more dire situation than the active Army, but we both have the same symptoms, I just have a higher fever," Blum said.

Driving the current problem is the fact that Army units returning from the war have either left tanks, trucks or other equipment behind or are bringing them home damaged or broken. And once they arrive, many of their comrades either leave the Army or move to other posts, forcing leaders to train other soldiers to replace them. As a result, the unit's ratings drop, said Ey, an Army spokesman.

link

I started a thread about this very same issue some time ago, with emphasis on the loss of NG capability to function in its traditional roles here in the states.

WOT has left US More Vulnerable than ever