Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Monday that he is not ready to draw a “direct line” between years of living under budget caps and a rash of recent military mishaps that have injured and killed more than 60 troops.
The services are now doing the right thing by investigating the causes and the wider circumstances of recent Navy collisions, aviation mishaps, and training range accidents, Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon.
“It’s hard to believe that we could reduce flying hours and not have less capable [forces]. There’s a reason why we think we need a certain number of hours, that is set on data,” he said. “But I am not willing to say right now that there’s a direct line between sequestration and what has happened.”
Defense hawks on Capitol Hill such as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, have argued there is a more clear cause and effect relationship between defense spending that has been capped since 2013, and the deadly incidents.
In June, Mattis testified to the House and Senate that the caps and the use of stopgap budgets is putting troops at risk, but said more needs to be known about the incidents.
Over the past three months, there were separate collisions between the USS John S. McCain and USS Fitzgerald in the Pacific that killed 17 sailors, two Marine Corps aviation mishaps that killed 19 troops, Army Black Hawk crashes that killed six, and a string of training incidents that wounded or killed over 20 troops.
“Right now, as I look at each of the services, they are doing the right thing, not just examining the specifics of that point but looking more broadly as I expect senior leaders to do,” Mattis said.
The Navy announced it fired a vice admiral and a captain due to the McCain and Fitzgerald collisions, which remain under investigation.
Meanwhile, Mattis said he does not expect to request supplemental spending from Congress for over 3,000 additional troops he is sending to Afghanistan to support President Trump’s new strategy there.
“Frankly, I haven’t signed the last of the orders as we look at specific, small elements that will be going,” he said. “Most of them are on their way or under orders now and I would prefer not give any more information that helps the enemy.”
The defense secretary has declined to say the exact number of additional troops he is sending.
