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With the FY01 National Defense Authorization and Appropriations Bills still in conference between Senate and House of Representative negotiators, one cannot prognosticate or even guess what the results will be. That being said, the Reserve forces have done well in the last few years, in terms of personnel levels and pay and benefits. However, more can certainly be done in terms of equipment, operations, and maintenance. Those issues of acquisition of state-of-the-art weapon systems, sized in sufficient numbers to address necessary force levels while modernizing the Reserve forces in order to reduce the average age of equipment and thus to increase readiness, will require special attention in the near future.
Chief of Naval Operations ADM Vern Clark testified before the combined Senate Armed Services Committee and House Armed Services Committee on 27 September 2000. "Our forward-deployed forces today are ready to respond to all tasking," Admiral Clark said in prepared remarks. "However, there is increasing concern that this high level of readiness is coming at the cost of our non-deployed forces. It is the readiness of these forces that continues to be of concern as we attempt to maintain the balance between current and future readiness. The limited availability of support material for our non-deployed units continues to be a significant readiness challenge."
Clark described a situation where aging ships, aircraft, and support facilities were increasing routine maintenance costs, placing further strain on already limited funds. "These shortfalls...