Washington – The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have left the National Guard dangerously short of aircraft, trucks, radios and other gear, seriously hampering the ability of citizen soldiers to respond to natural disasters and other emergencies at home, the Guard’s top officer warned Wednesday.
Almost 9 out of every 10 Army National Guard units that aren’t serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have less than half the equipment they need to respond to a domestic crisis, Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said in testimony to the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves.
“The units that are overseas are magnificently equipped,” said Blum, whose job is to coordinate National Guard activities between the states and the Pentagon. “However, having said that, 88 percent of the forces that are back here in the United States are very poorly equipped in the Army National Guard.”
Worse still, less than 45 percent of the Air National Guard’s units have the equipment they need to deploy, the first time such a shortfall in equipment readiness has occurred in the past 35 years, Blum said.
Congress set up the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves two years ago to consider changing how the country’s reserve military forces are trained, equipped and deployed.
Blum’s testimony underscored how badly the wars are grinding down equipment stocks and how that can impair the National Guard’s ability to respond to natural disasters or possible terrorist attacks at home.
Guard units have had to leave not only tanks and other combat vehicles behind in Iraq but also large trucks, Humvees, bulldozers, radios and other gear essential to disaster response.
Blum estimated that it would take $40 billion for the Army National Guard alone to make up for its equipment losses.
Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey told the panel that the Army has set aside $21 billion for the National Guard to buy new vehicles and other ground gear and another $1.9 billion to replace lost aircraft and parts during the next four years.
Wednesday’s hearing concerned a proposal to elevate the chief of the National Guard Bureau to four-star rank with a seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff and provide the National Guard with a separate equipment budget.
