The Marine Corps is seriously suffering from diminished aerial capacity, a senior aviation general told senators on Wednesday.
“It happened over a period of time,” Lt. Gen. Jon Davis, deputy commandant for aviation, told a panel of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We were making our operational commitment, we were making our deployments to go fight in Afghanistan, Iraq, and around the world.
“I think while we were making our operational commitments, making our deployments … our inventory was driving down,” Davis said.
Of particular issue, according to statistics provided by the Corps, are F/A-18 Hornet strike fighters and CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters. Just 30 percent of the strike fighters are ready to fly, and even fewer helicopters.
The problem, Davis said, was the product of budget cuts coupled with years of engagement overseas. “Aircraft, while they’re overseas, have been overutilized,” Davis said. “There’s only a certain amount of life we can get out of the older airplanes, and we’re doing that … but we do need to recapitalize.”
While current resources are adequate to ensure basic operations can continue, Davis said it was causing pilots to receive less training, with some barely eking out the required 11 hours of flight time each month. He suggested that could result in long-term consequences as training diminishes across the board.
“I worry about the years to come where these young pilots don’t get the experience, don’t get the qualifications they need, and they come in as supervisors, trainers and they don’t have the experience that I had as a junior officer,” Davis said. “I think that’s a critical delta for us right now that we need to be very concerned about and work on. And the only way to do that, is to basically get new metal on the line.”
