Iraq,cost issues sap US military readiness-lawmaker

By Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON, April 29 (Reuters) - A senior Democratic lawmaker on Tuesday called for urgent action to improve military readiness, saying the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and cost overruns in weapons programs had sapped the ability of U.S. troops to respond quickly to a crisis elsewhere.

Rep. Ike Skelton, a Missouri Democrat who heads the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, said military officials had finally begun to acknowledge these problems after years of questioning by Congress.

"Should a major unexpected contingency occur today, it could not be answered in a timely fashion and this worries me to death," Skelton told a group of defense writers.

"We are in dire need of upgrading our readiness," he said, citing concerns about military training, the strain of repeated deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, and difficulties ensuring troops had the equipment they needed.

It has been five years since the Iraq war began, Skelton said, adding that the average time between major conflicts over the past decades had been about five years.

Skelton said he hoped to include language in the fiscal 2009 defense spending bill for improved military readiness, to put more of a priority on winning the war in Afghanistan, and to underscore the need for more help from the U.S. State Department and other federal agencies. The legislation will be drafted by his committee next month.

Cost growth in nearly every major U.S. weapons program was a major problem compounding the issue, Skelton said, citing the need to invest in future technologies while also buying weapons to win the current wars.

"You really can't put off success today, particularly in Afghanistan," Skelton said, when asked about recent comments by Defense Secretary Robert Gates about the Air Force's need to produce more unmanned airplanes that could be used in Iraq and Afghanistan, rather than focusing on its stealth F-22 fighter jet that is geared for combat against another military force.

The Air Force wants to buy 381 F-22 fighters, built by Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N), but says it only has funds to pay for 183. Gates recently said the military urgently needed more unmanned airplanes to help ferret out extremists.

Skelton also said the Navy's goal of expanding to a 313-ship fleet was becoming "pretty illusory," given cost growth in the ships under construction. He said he supported the addition of more ships to the Navy's 2009 budget, but it was not clear exactly how many it could afford to buy.

The lawmaker declined to weigh in on a contentious debate over a $35 billion aerial tanker contract won by Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N) and its European partner EADS (EAD.PA). Losing bidder Boeing Co (BA.N), which has a large presence in Skelton's home state, is protesting the contract award.

Skelton said there would undoubtedly be efforts to address the issue during the shaping of the 2009 defense spending bill, but his preference would be to wait until the Government Accountability Office had ruled on the protest in mid-June.

"I would hope to minimize the discussion or the effort until at least the GAO has played out its protest," he said.

Several lawmakers have vowed to curb funding or otherwise halt the Northrop deal, including Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican and ranking member of the committee. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa, editing by Dave Zimmerman)