Congressmen Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) and Solomon Ortiz (D-Tex.), writing in an op-ed in the Christian Science Monitor Monday, sounded an increased readiness alarm, citing a classified briefing they had received last month. They said it provided “disturbing” details and the “jaw-dropping” implication that the US armed services are “literally at the breaking point.” They call upon the new Democratic Congress to stop the Administration’s “second-class funding” approach, but they also want to ensure that emergency supplementals do not fund developmental programs. At Pentagon urging, the Air Force and the other services took a broader look at war costs in the latest supplementals, but lawmakers have targeted such Air Force requests as F-35 Joint Strike Fighters to replace legacy aircraft lost in the war.
A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on…