On the recordJuly 23, 2013
I rise reluctantly to oppose the amendment. The Army has made it clear to our committee that it does not want to retain C-23s, the Sherpas, the workhorses, that have been doing some remarkable work for over 30 years, or acquire any replacement platform. In fact, the Army is already taking steps to put the aircraft out of operation while stopping short of full retirement. At the beginning of fiscal year 2013, the Army National Guard was operating 34 of these Sherpas. As of July, 14 of those had been turned into Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where they are being maintained in semi- flyable storage. That tells you something. The remaining aircraft are scheduled to be turned into Fort Sill by the end of October of this year. Because this amendment only applies to fiscal year 2014, the aircraft likely will be out of operation before this amendment would take effect. Unfortunately, because the C-23s will already be in storage by the time this amendment takes effect, it is unlikely it will accomplish its intent. We do not believe that taking funds from other critical readiness programs to apply to the C-23 operations is the best use of the Army's increasingly limited resources. Thus, reluctantly, I oppose this amendment, and reserve the balance of my time.
