John McCain Blames Navy And Congress For Lack Of Training

Senator John S. McCain III is piped aboard during a visit to the forward-deployed Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (DDG 56) early this summer.

By Ben Brody (Bloomberg) Following a series of deadly accidents, Senator John McCain on Sunday renewed his calls to address what he described as a U.S. failure during the past eight years to ensure that the military is prepared, equipped and trained.

“Whenever you cut defense capabilities, the first thing that goes is the training and the readiness, because that’s easy enough to cancel,” the Arizona Republican and chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

McCain, a Vietnam War veteran from a military family, has been a longtime critic of the automatic cuts in U.S. spending — including reductions in U.S. defense — known as sequestration that began in 2013 under an earlier deal to raise the country’s debt limit.

The Senate plans to take up a defense-authorization bill this week.

The U.S. Navy, in particular, has had high-profile accidents that McCain blamed on spending cuts, including an August collision near Singapore between an oil tanker and the USS John McCain, which killed 10. The ship is named for the senator’s father and grandfather. A collision off the coast of Japan in June between a U.S. destroyer and a cargo ship killed seven U.S. sailors.

“When you really look at how much time they have at actual training and readiness, it’s continued to shrink,” McCain said. “We have accident after accident after accident. We are killing more Americans in uniform in training than we are in engagement with the enemy. That’s not acceptable.”