2013 Army budget calls for more program cuts
By
Kate Brannen - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Feb 13, 2012 21:31:51 EST
The Army plans to buy fewer trucks and terminate a handful of smaller procurement programs to meet its budget targets for the next five years, the service announced Feb. 13.
At a briefing at the Pentagon, the Army unveiled its $185 billion budget request for 2013, which represents 30 percent of DoD’s requested $613 billion.
The Army budget includes $135 billion in base budget funding, plus $50 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations, known as OCO.
Barbara Bonessa, the Army’s deputy budget director, outlined the programs that were terminated or restructured to generate $5 billion in savings over the next five years. Some of them had previously been made public while others came as news to the reporters in the room.
With the 2013 budget, the Army plans to finish its buy of Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTVs), built by Oshkosh. The Army is requesting $377 million to procure 1,471 FMTVs in 2013.
By finishing its buy early, the Army will save $1.4 billion, according to Bonessa. The program will be “significantly restructured this year, with termination in 2014,” she said.
Another $900 million in savings is expected to come from canceling the Humvee Recap program — also known as the Modernized Expanded Capacity Vehicle. Several companies were expecting to compete for that contract in the coming months.
Instead, the Army plans to focus on the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, an effort with the Marine Corps to develop a new vehicle to replace the Humvee.
The Army is canceling the Enhanced Medium Altitude Reconnaissance and Surveillance System, a reconnaissance aircraft program for which Boeing was on contract. This will save $1.2 billion over the five years, Bonessa said.
The Army is also canceling the Mounted Soldier System, a wearable kit of equipment for combat vehicle crewmen, saving $500 million.
Canceling the Joint Precision Approach and Landing Systems (JPALS) will save another $400 million, Bonessa said.
The Long-Range Advance Scout Surveillance System, known as LRAS3, is also being canceled.
In addition to these program terminations, about 100 programs have been restructured, Bonessa said. Some buys have been accelerated, while many more have been stretched longer.
“We recognize that there is some potential risk to the industrial base with these terminations and restructurings; we believe at this point those are manageable,” Bonessa said.
The Army expects to save $1.3 billion from a delay to its Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV). However, in the 2013 budget request, it is asking for $640 million to continue work on the program.
The Army is also restructuring the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) program, for which Lockheed Martin and Raytheon were competing. JAGM was on the verge of moving into production with one of the contractor teams, but now that plan is being scrapped while the Army looks for a more affordable missile.
In addition to cuts to weapons programs, the Army is also beginning to plan for reductions to its force size.
The Army’s active duty end strength is planned to drop from today’s 547,000 troops to 490,000 soldiers by 2017. The Army will eliminate at least eight brigade combat teams (BCTs), two of which will come from brigades stationed in Europe. The Army could cut further brigades following the completion of a force mix and force design study the service is still conducting.
The Army Guard plans to reduce its size by 5,000 soldiers, reaching a total of 558,200 by 2017. There are no reductions planned for the Marine Corps Reserves.
The 2013 budget was crafted in “the face of considerable change,” Pentagon comptroller Robert Hale said, citing the spending caps passed as part of the Budget Control Act in August, the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and the winding down of operations in Afghanistan.
To calculate the OCO budget, the Pentagon assumed there would be 68,000 troops in Afghanistan in the coming years. This number is used as a placeholder, Hale explained, and it allows the president to make the necessary decisions about operations there without feeling tied to budget concerns.
Within the Army’s OCO budget is $5.7 billion for equipping and training the Afghan security forces, a number significantly down from the $11.2 billion appropriated in 2012.
Hale said this did not represent a reduction in U.S. commitment and that U.S. commanders in Afghanistan were very comfortable with this level of funding.
At the height of the surge of U.S. troops in Iraq in 2008, war spending accounted for almost half of the Army’s overall budget. In 2008, the Army’s base budget was $131 billion, with an extra $121 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
With U.S. presence in both countries winding down, OCO dollars now make up only 27 percent of Army spending.
The Army’s 2013 OCO request includes $3.7 billion for reset and repair of deployed equipment.
