Admin l Wednesday, September 27, 2017
WASHINGTON, United States – Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford has raised an alarm over what he described as erosion of American military capabilities by Russia and China.
Gen. Joe Dunford who was addressing the Senate Armed Services Committee said the decelopment is real and must be halted.
He charged the committee to provide adequate, stable budgets so that the Defense Department can fight today’s battles, and prepare tomorrow’s force. According to him, America’s military benchmarks its forces’ capabilities against the military capabilities of Russia and China.
He said Russia and China are spending vast amounts to build up their militaries and they are aiming capabilities at American gaps, Dunford said. He explained that the biggest advantage the United States maintains is the ability to deploy troops and capabilities anywhere in the world and then maintain them. But Russia and China, he added, are looking to minimize that advantage and split the United States from its European and Pacific allies.
Since World War II, the United States thinks and acts globally, Dunford said, adding that Capabilities are also eroded by lack of money and lack of time for training.
“If you took a pilot specifically, you know, in the past, pilots might have had 30 hours a month to fly. Now they may be down as low as 15 hours a month,” Dunford said. “On a day-to-day basis, you may not be able to see the different between pilot A and pilot B. But, if there is an in-flight emergency, I can guarantee you that the pilot that has 30 hours will immediately feel much more comfortable and confident in their ability to deal an anomalous situation [and] be able to control their physiological response. And you and I may never find out about that incident.”
The pilot with only 15 hours a month may not end up so safe, the chairman said.
“I would argue that, while we may have trained to standard in the past, when we had sufficient time and resources, now, we’re training to time, because that ship is going to go to sea, that pilot is going to go to war, that infantryman is going to go to war, whether or not they’ve had an opportunity to train, sometimes, in the basic tasks or not,” he said.
