1. Navy League of the United States
The United States Marine Corps: The Most Ready
when the Nation is Least Ready
Acknowledgement
First, thank you for giving me an opportunity to speak with you today about the Marine Corps and the Navy League of the United States.
For Congressman/woman (name), (State/District), (Month), Date, 2017
Citizens in Support of the Sea Services

2. Citizens in Support of the Sea Services
Agenda
History of the Navy League of the United States
Background on the Navy League in (District/State)
The Role of the U.S. Marine Corps in National Security
USMC Needs Support
Closing
For example, the (blank) council has participated in ____. Focus on volunteer efforts and youth programs in the district. Go into local accomplishments if meeting with a Representative, state-wide programs/activities with a Senator.
Citizens in Support of the Sea Services

3. The Navy League of the United States
Founded in 1902 with the support of President Teddy Roosevelt
Promotes the need for strong sea services
Civilian organization
230 Local Councils
50,000 members worldwide
Our Goal: to educate the public and elected officials on the importance of a strong maritime component for our National Security
Supports and advocates for members of the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and U.S. Flag Merchant Marine
Please tailor the discussion to your local council:
__#__ NL members-strong; more than __ in the state of
Civilian Volunteers come from a variety of backgrounds, but all believe in strong sea services.
Key Activities: Individual Augmentee (IA) support, Junior Navy and Marine Corps ROTC, Adopt-a-Ship, public education on sea services, ship commissionings, Naval Sea Cadets Corps
Citizens in Support of the Sea Services

4. The Marine Corps is Always Ready
The Marine Corps currently has 182,000 Active Duty Marines and 38,500 Marine Reservists as part of their total force deployed around the world performing:
Humanitarian aid
Disaster relief
Counter-piracy
Theater security cooperation
Special operations
Counter-insurgency
Counter-terrorism
The USMC is under a continued high operational tempo. The Marine Corps must be fully resourced and equipped to support all ongoing and future contingencies. 30,000 Marines are deployed overseas—only 6,000 less than when it was a force of 196,000. The current goal is 194,000.
The Marine Corps had been drawing down, from 202,000 in 2012 to until new end strength is met of 174,000 to meet BCA cap budget restrictions. That level accepts a high level of risk. The recent omnibus adds 1,000 Marines for a total of 185,000.
The USMC Force Structure Review recommended an active force of 194,000 Marines.
The Navy League recognizes the challenges the nation faces during this tough economic times. The Navy League also stresses that these investments are critical to ensuring the men and women of the sea services have all the tools they need to do their job.
The sea services of the United States are the first to get on scene in the face of natural disasters, including tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, and even the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
- From War on the Rocks (military blog): “The Corps’ manning and resources are declining faster than its operational commitments. Global security commitments have forced the service to sustain a deployment-to-dwell (D2D) ratio in the active force of 1:2, or two months at home for every month deployed. This figure is well below the ideal ratio of 1:3, which the Corps has determined would be optimal for the health of the force. Personnel assigned to units that are in particularly high-demand, such as MV-22 Osprey and KC-130 tanker squadrons, are enduring D2D ratios below 1:2. These excessive deployment requirements tax the force in a myriad of ways, from reducing marines’ time with their families to preventing them from receiving training that is critical to their individual readiness. In the long term, insufficient downtime between deployments can adversely affect the Corps by pushing its most experienced marines to leave the service.”
Citizens in Support of the Sea Services

5. The US Marine Corps is Vital to National Security
The amphibious force protects freedom of movement for sea trade, provides operational reach, and increased agility for the entire military.
The USMC prevents small incidents from becoming global crises.
Forward deployment gives national leaders time to create diplomatic solutions.
The Marine Corps has expeditionary strength: deployed units are self-sufficient and always ready.
Forward posture reduces response time; the USMC has set the gold standard for responding quickly to emergencies around the world.
The USMC shoulders the heavy responsibility of responding first to a variety of crises around the globe.
USMC is involved in our current fight, crisis response, and forward presence. Because of their ability to deploy so quickly and so lightly, they are able to be first on the ground in the event of a crisis. With a Marine presence guaranteeing security, American leaders have more breathing room/time to create diplomatic solutions to problems.
“The security environment changes, the tactics, techniques, and procedures change, the threats change, but what won’t change is our role as the Nation’s crisis response force of choice.”
General Dunford – From 2015 Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower
Citizens in Support of the Sea Services

6. Citizens in Support of the Sea Services
Marine Aviation
The combined arms operations and expeditionary capabilities have served to make the Marine Corps a lethal force that can strike from virtually anywhere in the world at any time .
Demands on aviation are placing stress on the USMC: they have seen “ a decrease in flight hours per month per aircrew and an uptick in mishap rates.”
Deployments remain frequent though the size of the force has shrunk and budgetary pressure prevents maintenance and equipment updates.
The average age of Marine Corps aircraft is 22 years, twice that of the Navy’s.
The Navy League recommends: fulfilling USMC’s Unfunded Priorities Aviation Request of $2.3B
Quoted From Stars & Stripes, (some paragraphs deleted for space):
A threefold increase in helicopter crash deaths last year is raising questions about whether budget cuts are endangering troops by forcing deep cuts in maintenance and training.
Nondeployed units at their homes stations have dealt with reduced flight training opportunities for years. The continued high pace of wartime operations meant units deploying to conflict areas got priority for training. Cuts to funds used by to pay for flight time and helicopter repairs means that there may not be enough air-worthy aircraft available for nondeployed units to train safely. For the Marines, almost one-fifth of their helicopters aren’t available due to maintenance requirements.
Because nondeploying units spend less time in the air, their training opportunities become even more dangerous.
“It’s not a direct one-for-one correlation, but once you go below 15 hours (a month) per pilot, that’s when you see real degradation in performance,” said retired Maj. Carl Forsling. Requirements are “just above the bare minimums for safety ... there’s not a lot of wiggle room,” Forsling said.
Reductions to training and maintenance budgets are a result of several years of cuts in Congress: “The U.S. military has suffered a roughly 30 percent decrease in operations and maintenance funding from fiscal year 2012 through fiscal year The cuts have meant reduced funding and training, along with deferred maintenance, for years now across military aviation platforms.”
From War on the Rocks: “Aircraft are also suffering from the operational demands being placed on them. Current global requirements have precluded any “reset” following the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The unprecedented flight time these aircraft incurred during combat has prematurely aged many platforms.”
The Corps is still contending with the effects of the 2013 sequestration, when the service was forced to make dramatic spending cuts by furloughing key civilian specialists and stopping overtime work. These furloughs slowed the pace at which aircraft can go through depot maintenance, leading to a backlog waiting to undergo overhaul. Aviators in the fleet are struggling to maintain their skills with limited numbers of aircraft to fly. The Corps has concluded that it is 20 percent short of the aircraft necessary to meet its readiness standards, defined as having a squadron complete 70 percent or more of its essential training requirements. Squadrons that have low readiness ratings present more of a safety risk in peacetime and threaten to erode the qualitative edge that U.S. pilots have historically enjoyed in combat.
Citizens in Support of the Sea Services

7. The Need for Amphibious Ship Capabilities
17 amphibious ships are needed to deploy a Marine expeditionary brigade. USMC has a current inventory of 30 ships, which means the Marine Corps cannot launch two brigades at once in the event it was called upon to carry out simultaneous forceful-entry missions. This is eight ships below the stated requirement.
The COCOMs require more than the planned number of amphibious ships to meet their demand for forward presence and crisis response.
As the National Security Strategy rebalances towards the Pacific, the needs and demands on an amphibious force will increase.
- Of the 30 amphibious warships in the Navy, almost a third are unavailable due to maintenance.
Since October 2011, Navy- Marine Corps teams aboard amphibious warships have been utilized more than 80 times.
2016 Force Structure Assessment matches what the Navy League has been saying for years: we need 38 amphibious ships.
The Navy League Recommends: 38 amphibious ships for the USMC, meeting the Force Structure Assessment requirements.
Citizens in Support of the Sea Services

8. Citizens in Support of the Sea Services
USMC Needs Congress!
At only 7.8% of the DOD budget, the USMC cannot easily or readily absorb any additional budgetary reductions without significantly decrementing readiness, training, and preparedness.
Major defense cuts, like a return to the Budget Control Act in FY2018, will disproportionately hurt the USMC because of their size and reset needs.
Equipment usage rates in Iraq and Afghanistan were twelve times higher than in peacetime, increasing maintenance and replacement costs at a higher rate than planned.
The Navy League Recommends: Increasing the OCO Funding for the USMC to maintain readiness, fund repairs, and increase training.
- Budget cuts are coming at the wrong time: after over a decade in Iraq & Afghanistan , equipment is badly worn and needs to be reset.
General Paxton testified in March 2016 before the Senate Armed Services Committee that “ there is no margin for error on [the] multiple missions” that Marines are asked to perform. The high operational tempo is impacting Marines’ dwell time. The desired ratio is seven months deployed and 21 months at home, but testified the actual ratio for many Marines is at seven months deployed and 14 months at home.
USMC Commandant General Neller testified in March 2016 before Congress that with the budget restrictions, Marines are limited in their ability to respond to multiple conflicts: “…Our ability to meet other regional requirements for major contingency plans, we would be able to do that, but we would probably not be able to do it within the timeframe that the current plans call for us to arrive to participate in that conflict."
Citizens in Support of the Sea Services

9. Citizens in Support of the Sea Services
FY2018 Priorities
Repeal the Budget Control Act to prevent a return to sequestration and budget cuts—the Marine Corps is still recovering from the last round of cuts, and the demands on the Marines has only increased.
Invest in readiness, training, and maintenance.
Ensure a force size and operational tempo that supports at least a 1:2 deployment-to-dwell ratio.
From USNI:
Spending caps have made maintaining that high level of readiness a challenge. General Neller said the service would have to continue its recent trend of prioritizing only deployed and next-to-deploy forces, leaving the “bench” back at home without the proper resources to train or maintain equipment.
The Bipartisan Budget Act, which raised the caps, goes away in FY2018, returning the USMC to a shrinking budget.
Citizens in Support of the Sea Services

10. Citizens in Support of the Sea Services
Conclusion
The United States Marine Corps ensures security for the United States worldwide.
The USMC shoulders the heavy responsibility of responding first to a variety of crises around the globe.
The USMC is involved in our current fight, crisis response, and forward presence. The USMC has taken on new challenges and an expanded mission on a small budget, and the United States should fund their needs.
The Navy League strongly believes that America’s sea services are the greatest force for our country's safety and peace in the world.
Their readiness and maintenance must be
funded appropriately.
Readiness is severely underfunded by the Marine Corps. From USNI news: “Gen. John Paxton Jr., assistant commandant, said the bill-payers in the Marine Corps are the non-deployed units….In his prepared testimony on the F/A-18 A and D model Hornets and the AV-8B Harriers, he said both are “’suffering from shortages of aircraft availability due to increased wear on aging aircraft and modernization delays’…This shortage also has an impact on pilot readiness; flying time is lost because the aircraft are not ready”
Citizens in Support of the Sea Services

11. Navy League of the United States
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Join the Congressional Shipbuilding Caucus to help ensure USMC has the amphibious ships it needs!
Encourage your Representative to join the Congressional Shipbuilding Caucus, if they haven’t already.  The Navy League sponsors a quarterly breakfast series with them to explore topics of interest to the shipbuilding community.   It’s very bipartisan, co-chaired by Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA) and Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT).
Citizens in Support of the Sea Services