The General Accounting Office (GAO) just released a report detailing “readiness” levels for the US military. Readiness is measured by each of the services with respect to a unit’s ability to fight and accomplish the missions assigned to it. Put broadly, does a unit have the resources — personnel and equipment — and training required to get the job done?

Insufficient readiness has been a problem now for several years. In May 2016, the second AEI “Readiness Tracker” report authored by James Cunningham concluded that military readiness had “deteriorated” over “the past year” and that the services were “not able to meet their day-to-day requirements and still lack the operational depth required to respond to a major crisis.” Subsequent reports on the Army and cross-service aviation only continued to confirm the problem.

Pushed by the House and Senate
Armed Services Committees, and allotted more monies under Trump’s defense
budgets, the Pentagon has tried to address this shortfall. If the GAO report is
accurate — and there is little reason to think it isn’t — there have been
improvements but there is still a ways to go when it comes to readiness.

Using individual service data
and combining them as relevant in the five military domains (eg., Army and
Marine land forces), the GAO assesses that from fiscal year 2017 to 2019, readiness
improved in the ground domain; in the sea domain, there was no improvement; and
for air, space, and cyber, readiness remained something of a mixed bag. Pilot
shortages remain a problem in the air domain, and the Navy’s ability to repair
and maintain ships continues to be a major challenge. And there is the
additional, relatively new issue of finding the appropriate metrics for
measuring space and cyber readiness.

While
readiness had been an issue for many years given the demands for fighting the
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it became more of a public issue in 2016. The combination
of budget cuts, still ongoing operations in the Middle East, and the more
aggressive behavior of both Russia and China meant that the overall demand on
American forces remained high. With a reduced force structure and a rapidly
changing global security situation, deployments were more frequent and their
length, especially in the Navy, greater. Equipment and personnel were wearing
out.

As
noted, and seen in the graph, additional monies have helped alleviate some of the
readiness issues. But making further progress will either require more money
and growth in the size of the force or a significant revision in the national
defense strategy. As for the first, the Biden White House is signaling that
there will be no additional monies — if anything, there will likely be a reduction
in the Defense Department’s base budget. Still, the Biden foreign policy team
has not indicated that they intend to roll back substantially US security
commitments around the world. With Russia saber-rattling on Ukraine’s border,
China pushing the envelope in the case of Taiwan and the Philippines, North
Korea testing missiles again, the Taliban refusing to put down its arms, and
the likely need to sustain a reassurance presence in the Persian Gulf vis a vis
Iran regardless of whether the JCOPA is resurrected, the Biden national
security team will be hard pressed to find ways to reduce the demand on the
American military.

Historically,
like hemlines, readiness levels have gone up and down and their importance
sometimes debated, especially when budgeteers are looking for ways to save
money. Still, worn out equipment and personnel is not a recipe for a healthy
All-Volunteer Force. A key factor in retention is whether the soldier, pilot,
or sailor (who, these days, is more often than not a spouse and often a father
or a mother) believes he or she is adequately trained, equipped, and rested — that
is, ready. Lower readiness levels combined with a potentially booming economy
means a lot of military talent and experience will be tempted to turn in their
papers.

Modernizing the military’s equipment is typically seen as the priority when it comes to the defense budget. However, readiness is the “software” to that “hardware.” One needs both.

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