Tuberville holds on military nominations hurting readiness against China, says Deputy Defense Sec – By Patrick Tucker (Defense One) / July 10, 2023
From NDAA amendments and ‘poison pill’ spending bills to promotion holds, Republicans’ efforts are frustrating Pentagon officials.
FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii–Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s 9-months-and-counting hold on more than 250 Defense Department promotions is undermining the U.S. military in the Pacific, according to the Pentagon’s second-highest-ranking civilian official.
“One really good example of the challenge we’re facing is…the third Marine Expeditionary Force. This is our primary force to do the naval expeditionary movements in any fight that could happen in the Western Pacific,” Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks told reporters at a recent roundtable in Hawaii with representatives from INDOPACOM, U.S. Army Forces Pacific, and base officials at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
“What we’re seeing there right now is we’ve had a delay in that transition of that commanding general from [III MEF]. Really disrupting to the Marine Corps’ largest expeditionary standing force. And it’s here in INDOPACOM. And that’s a real challenge. That’s one specific example. But it layers on to this overall problem where we have maybe up to 89% of our general flag officer positions that could be vacant” in the coming year. So no matter what one thinks about the number of general officers in the military, which I’ve heard come up before, I don’t think anyone would argue we [only] need 11 percent of them,” she said.
