Pentagon report finds 'most' forces ready, cites potential shortages

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Defense Department's latest report on military readiness says most U.S. forces are ready for war, but cites a number of areas of concern including "concerns about personnel shortages" and "aging equipment."

If the United States were to be thrust into two simultaneous or "near simultaneous" conflicts, which is the Pentagon's benchmark for readiness, "most major combat and key support forces are ready to meet assigned taskings," "although there are some force and capability shortfalls," the report to Congress says.

The Quarterly Report on Personnel and Unit Readiness, which ordinarily goes nearly unnoticed, has taken on added significance in a political season where the state of military preparedness has become one of the central issues of the presidential race, with the George W. Bush campaign accusing the Clinton-Gore administration of "running down the military" and the Gore campaign forced to defend the administration's record.

"A review of overall force readiness confirms that America's armed forces remain capable of executing the National Military Strategy," and "Overall unit readiness is satisfactory in most cases, although some deficient readiness indicators, especially manning and training, are a concern about personnel shortages and aging equipment remain," according to the report.

"This is one of those situations where the Gore (campaign) can say the glass is half full and the Bush (campaign) can say the glass is half empty," one Defense Department official said of the report.

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"And Bush can say we are drinking from it and Gore can say we are filling it," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

"The Services continue their effort to balance resources to meet the competing demands of personnel, current readiness, infrastructure, and modernization", the report says.

Pointing to cash infusions intended to correct a number of areas of concern such as a shortage of spare parts, the report says, "The impact of recent funding increases is beginning to be realized, but increasing the current readiness posture to desired levels while preparing for tomorrow's challenges will require continued attention, time and resources."

GOP vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney said Wednesday that the Clinton-Gore administration has "overextended, taken for granted and neglected" the military.

"When you triple our commitments around the world, while at the same time taking the Army from 14 divisions down to 10... and the Air Force from 17 wings to 13 ... and the Navy from well over 400 ships down toward fewer than 300 -- That Mr. Gore, is "running down the military," Cheney said.

In order to provide the quarterly assessment of the U.S. military's ability to respond to crises worldwide, Pentagon planners laid out a scenario under which U.S. military units were tied down in ongoing operations in Bosnia, Kosovo and elsewhere.

"The scenario then assumed a major theater war in Korea, followed by a (major theater war) in" the Persian Gulf region.

A report on the planning exercise concluded that the U.S. military would prevail in both wars but that "slower than planned force buildup and delays in counter-offensive operations increase the potential for higher casualties to U.S. forces in the interim and during the warfight."

Each of the four services and the Special Operations Command were asked to rank their readiness in four key areas as either "good," "concern," or "unsatisfactory."

The four areas are: 1) Personnel; 2) Equipment; 3) Training, and 4) Enablers.

While none of the services reported to be "unsatisfactory" in any of the categories, 13 out of the 20 possible areas were listed as areas of "concern" with only seven listed in the "good" category.

The Navy and the Air Force reported "concern" in all four available categories.

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