Worn Out Weapons

The Government Accountability Office is warning the Defense Dept. of rapidly declining conditions for major weapons systems used in the War on Terror:

GAO analyzed the fleetwide condition of 30 types of equipment and found that readiness rates for most had declined between fiscal 1999 and 2004. The drop was the most noticeable in the last two of those years, because of continuous high use and the advancing age and complexity of the systems, the report stated.
Items such as Army and Marine Corps trucks, combat vehicles and rotary wing aircraft have been used far past their normal peacetime levels, GAO said.

They are using a color code system-red, yellow, green-to signify condition, with red being the worst:

Inventory of three pieces of equipment -- the Army's CH-47 D/F Chinook transport helicopters, the Marine Corps' M1A1 Abrams tanks and the Navy's P-3 Orion maritime patrol planes -- scored red on the GAO list, indicating that problems with them are so severe that they require immediate attention by the military services and Congress.
The Marine Corps CH-46E Sea Knight helicopters were the only inventory item given a red for the near-term funding plan, while seven inventory items were red for long-term funding plans. Those items were the: Army's Bradley Fighting Vehicles and M113 Armored Personnel Carriers, the Marine Corps' Sea Knight helicopters and CH-53E Super Stallion transport helicopters, the Navy's P-3 Orion aircraft and Standard Missile-2 Surface-to-Air missiles and the Air Force's KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft.