December
8, 2006: The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are wearing out U.S. Army and Marine
Corps (and to a lesser extent air force and navy aircraft) at a rate some nine
times higher than during peace time. That comes to nearly $20 billion dollars
of equipment loss and damage per year. Congress is only providing enough money
to deal with about two thirds of that loss. That, in turn, is made up, to some
extent, by the large number of Cold War surplus gear still available. After the
1991 Gulf War, half a dozen army divisions were disbanded, and most of their
heavy weapons were put into storage. The marines didn't have much of a Cold War
surplus to draw on, and has had to get a lot of new equipment to replace
losses. Both services are using the "reset" (repair and refurbishment) money to
upgrade vehicles and equipment. Vehicles are fitted with upgraded, or new,
components, while busted weapons and equipment is replaced with newer, and
superior, models.
The
biggest plus from all this is the vast amount of practical experience the
troops are getting in the use of their weapons and gear under combat
conditions. Much more is known about this stuff, and the American ground forces
have become, by a large margin, the most combat experienced on the planet. This
does not register with many pundits and civilian analysts, but to military
professionals, it is an edge that money cannot buy.
