Former DoD Comptroller: Be Skeptical of Claims of Readiness Crisis | Military.com: A former Defense Department comptroller said Tuesday the public should be skeptical of the dire warnings of a readiness crisis coming from the military this year.
Robert Hale, who served under President Barack Obama, said the services do have some shortfalls but are likely putting their "worst foot forward" in hopes of scoring funding increases under the new administration, which has proposed a major defense buildup.
The comments come after the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee recently blamed Obama administration officials for denying how thin and ill-prepared the military has become due to decreasing budgets in recent years.
Earlier this month, vice chiefs for the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps came to testify on Capitol Hill, and for the third year in a row painted an increasingly grim picture of grounded aircraft, units unready to fight and personnel shortages.
"There's money available right now … This is a time when the services, if you will, want to put their worst foot forward and make clear all the problems that are there," Hale said during a forum at the Brookings Institution, a liberal-leaning think tank in Washington. "So, I think we need to be a little skeptical."
