Airmen uneasy over budget talk

Unbending politicians who hold defense budgets hostage while refusing to cut a deal to address the nation's debt crisis are putting at risk the readiness of America's armed forces.

That's what the Joint Chiefs warned last week in a letter to the House and Senate armed services committees.

"We are on the brink of creating a hollow force due to an unprecedented convergence of budget conditions and legislation that could require (keeping) more forces than requested while underfunding (their) readiness," the seven members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff complained in a "For Official Use Only" letter.

The letter was sent to committee chairmen Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Rep. Harold "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif.

"Should this looming readiness crisis be left unaddressed," they continued, "we will have to ground aircraft, return ships to port, and stop driving combat vehicles in training. We will also be unable to reset and restore the force's full-spectrum combat capability after over a decade of hard fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Even as the nation's top generals and admirals pointed fingers at the mess lawmakers have made of their budgets, service leaders began notifying major commands to curtail spending immediately.

For the Air Force and Navy departments, at least, that is to include a civilian-hiring freeze, except to fill readiness-critical jobs.

Temporary workers will be dismissed and "term" employees will not see contracts renewed as they expire.

Army officials were not prepared to discuss specific moves its commands are taking to slow spending. But Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, in a Jan. 10 memo, gave guidance to every service on "near-term actions" they need to take to "mitigate" risk of running out of money.

The most pressing issue is the last Congress failed to pass a 2013 defense appropriations bill. Instead, the Department of Defense is operating on a continuing resolution, or CR, through March 27, which caps spending at 2012 levels.

Trouble is, the services have been spending beyond those levels on the assumption their 2013 budget request would be enacted.

Air Force Secretary Mike Donley told reporters "budget gymnastics" were exerting "costly consequences upon the Air Force and our sister services and create an atmosphere of unease among many of our uniformed and civilian airmen."

The Air Force projects a $1.8 billion shortfall in funds for overseas contingency operations.

Air Force leaders referred to it in an advisory to commands to take immediate steps to save money including a hiring freeze, curtailment of all flying not directly tied to readiness, and cancellation of all temporary duty assignments not mission critical.

Deputy defense chief Carter advised the services to avoid any cuts that would impact wartime operations or compromise wounded warrior programs. And "to the extent feasible" they should protect family programs.

Tom Philpott can be contacted at Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, Va. 20120-1111, or by e-mail at: [email protected]