Washington – Nearly 90 percent of Army National Guard units in the United States are rated “not ready” – largely because of shortfalls in equipment worth billions of dollars – jeopardizing the Guard’s ability to respond to crises at home and abroad, according to a congressional commission that released a preliminary report Thursday on the state of U.S. military reserve forces.
The commission found that heavy deployments of the National Guard and Reserves since 2001 for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and other anti-terrorism missions have deepened shortages, forced the military to cobble together units and hurt recruiting. The problems threaten to undermine the nation’s 830,000-strong selected reserves, the commission said.
“We can’t sustain the (National Guard and Reserve) on the course we’re on,” said Arnold Punaro, chairman of the 13-member Commission on the National Guard and Reserves, established by Congress in 2005.
The commission faulted the Pentagon for a lack of budgeting for “civil support” for domestic emergencies, criticizing what it called the “flawed assumption” that as long as the military is prepared to fight a major war, it is ready to respond to a disaster or emergency at home.
Army National Guard units in the United States have on average about 50 percent of their authorized stock of dual-use equipment, meaning gear needed both for fighting wars and domestic missions, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report.
The National Guard estimates it would require $38 billion for equipment to restore domestic Army and Air units to full readiness. The Army has budgeted $21 billion to augment Guard equipment through 2011.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the use of U.S. military reservists has sharply escalated, from about 12.7 million days of service in 2001 to an estimated 63 million in 2006. The current increase of U.S. troops in Iraq is expected to require the accelerated call-up of as many as four National Guard combat brigades beginning early next year.
