Reports have surfaced that an astonishing 20 percent of all Marine aircrafts are grounded. According to the Marine Corps’s top aviator, this will impact training, making deployments much more difficult for Marines.
Lt. Gen. Jon Davis, the deputy commandant of the Marine Corps for Aviation, spoke about how Marine aviation has been affected by the across-the-board spending cuts to the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower on Wednesday.
“We do a great job getting the guys out the door with assets and training, but it’s training the next group that’s ready to go,” that’s a challenge, Davis, said. “One of the prime reasons we have a hard time with that right now is because we have 19 percent of our flight-line inventory that we should have up in operation that’s not available to fly.”
According to Marine Corps Times, the shortage originated from a backlog of aircrafts stuck in depots for extensive work and overhauls. Apparently, the problems can be dated back to the dense budget cuts in 2013.
“This is one of the, frankly, one of the complications that we warned Congress about when we were talking about sequestration several years ago, was particularly our depot throughput and the implications, and the fact that it would take us several years to recover,” said Vice Adm. Paul Grosklags, the principal military deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisitions.
The strike-fighter shortfall can possibly reach as high as 134 aircrafts between the Marines and Navy.
