Army Says 2 of Its Divisions Are Unprepared for War

The U.S. Army has rated two of its 10 divisions as unprepared for war in a classified evaluation that reflects the strain of open-ended troop commitments in Bosnia, Kosovo and elsewhere, Pentagon officials disclosed Tuesday.

This is the first time in at least seven years that any of the Army’s divisions has received the lowest of four possible readiness grades, the officials said. The “C-4” rating means that the units in question--the 10th Mountain Division based at Ft. Drum, N.Y., and the 1st Infantry Division headquartered in Germany--are considered to need additional manpower, equipment or training before they would be able to fight in a major regional war.

The move stunned senior Pentagon civilians and members of Congress, who were informed of the monthly ratings within the last week. But some Pentagon officials portrayed the evaluation as a dramatic effort by the Army to highlight long-standing concerns and lobby for more money.

Army authorities acknowledged that the two divisions probably are more ready to fight than the new evaluation suggests. They said the primary reason for the C-4 rating is that each division has one brigade, up to half of its troops, doing peacekeeping duty in the Balkans: the 10th Mountain in Bosnia, the 1st Infantry in Kosovo.

Congressional Republicans appeared eager to capitalize on what they viewed as fresh evidence of eroding readiness and administration mismanagement.

“Over the past several years, the readiness of the Army has been deteriorating as a result of insufficient funding and a foreign policy that has committed military personnel to areas where we have no vital security interests,” said Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on readiness.