U.S. Study Finds Subpar Readiness of Weaponry

Congressional inspectors said Friday that they found rusting equipment, dead batteries and deteriorating engine parts on Army ships loaded with weapons and supplies that would be the first sent into a sudden war.

The equipment examined in the General Accounting Office report includes tanks and infantry fighting vehicles for 4,500 soldiers as well as combat and support equipment for an additional 5,300 soldiers. Included were self-propelled howitzers, multiple-launch rocket systems, cargo trucks, tractors, communications equipment and chemical weapons detection and decontamination equipment.

A quarter of the equipment considered the highest priority was rated below the Army’s readiness standard, the report said. As of this spring, 13 of 51 sets of equipment fell below the standard.

The Pentagon concurred with the GAO study but said the Army is taking steps to correct the problem, including shifting the equipment from seven older ships to eight new “roll-on, roll-off” ships that can better control humidity and heat below decks.

Under Army doctrine refined with the experience of the Persian Gulf War, the “brigade set” of equipment can be “pre-positioned” in distant oceans, where it could reach potential battle zones such as the Persian Gulf or the Horn of Africa in much less time than equipment shipped from the United States.

Conditions aboard the storage ships can grow stagnant, hot and humid, and the space is too tight to allow much more than the checking of tire pressure, occasional starting of motors and other cursory maintenance.

Problems ranged from cracked windshields and missing fire extinguishers to rust, dead batteries and deteriorating rubber engine gaskets. One set of equipment intended to support a transport company had none of its authorized trucks or trailers.

Army equipment data in April showed that some faults that rendered specific pieces of equipment unfit for battle “had remained uncorrected since September 1995.”

The GAO said the circumstances in April were much improved from the previous fall, when only eight of 51 equipment sets were found ready for battle.