Marine Corps Leaders Warn Troop Cuts May Go Too Far - Blog
As Congress gears up to consider military funding requests for 2016, the Marine
Corps is likely to argue that under the current budget law, its forces are being
cut too precipitously.
The current active-duty force of 187,900 would
have to drop to 182,000 under strict funding limits mandated by the 2011 budget
law. At that reduced size, the Marine Corps would have to stretch its forces
thin and might have to keep troops deployed longer than the standard seven-month
tours, said Maj. Gen. Andrew O'Donnell Jr., deputy commander of the Marine Corps
Combat Development Command.
"We are trying to find that sweet spot in
this fiscal environment where the number should be, and the right size of the
force. We think it should be somewhere around 182,000 to 184,000," he said Jan.
14 at the Surface Navy Association annual conference.
Echoing a similar
contention made by Army leaders, Marines insist that new security crises that
have erupted over the past year should spur a fresh discussion about military
downsizing goals.
At its wartime high, the Corps had 202,000 troops.
Marines have mostly left Afghanistan, where they had 6,500 troops last year and
now only have 120. But they are stepping up deployments to Europe and the Middle
East, O'Donnell said. Of about 110,000 Marines who are assigned to combat
duties, 31,000 are deployed. Three Marine Expeditionary Units are in the Western
Pacific. Another 2,000 Marines have been assigned to "rapid response" duties
under U.S. Africa Command in the wake of the Benghazi crisis in Libya, and to
Kuwait under U.S. Central Command to support the air war against Islamic
extremists in Iraq and Syria.
Marine officials worry that they might not
have enough forces to allow troops 14-month breaks in between seven-month
deployments, as is currently the norm. When the force drops closer to 180,000,
said O'Donnell, "it takes its toll" on people and equipment. The goal, he said,
is to have at least one-third of the Marine Corps in overseas locations.
