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Land, Sea, and Air: U.S. Military Readiness in the Navy and Marine Corps

PACIFIC OCEAN (Nov. 19, 2016) Four U.S. F-35B Lightning II aircraft perform a flyover above the amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6) during the Lightning Carrier Proof of Concept Demonstration. (U.S. Navy photo by Andy Wolfe/Released)
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Posted: January 5th, 2017

The crash of a MV-22B off of Okinawa on December 13, 2016 occurred during one of the most difficult tasks a Marine aviator can do in peacetime: night time midair refueling. While the Marine Corps will not release more details until an investigation is complete, this episode, and another involving an F/A-18 where the pilot was killed, have many wondering if Marine aviators are getting enough flight time.

This is indicative of a greater problem faced by all branches of the military: sustained deployments and trimmed budgets originating with the 2013 sequester mean less time and resources for training and future planning. Overtime, this undermines the readiness of the armed forces and is felt by each military branch in different ways. In this feature, The Cipher Brief examines the state of readiness in the United States Marine Corps and Navy as we recently did for the Army and Air Force.

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