The Army in its fiscal 2017 budget request accepted deep cuts to procurement and modernization in support of increased funding for near-term investments in readiness of personnel and equipment to fight today’s battles.
A $125.1 billion base budget, the Army’s request is $1.4 billion less than its outlay for fiscal 2016. The service’s total request for next year is $148 billion including overseas contingency operations funding, which edged up from $21 billion in the current year to $23 billion in the 2017 request.
Photo: General Dynamics
Aviation and vehicle procurement suffered most of the cuts to procurement, which came in at a total $17.5 billion, a reduction from $18.4 billion in the current fiscal year, though the amount funded through OCO increased from $2 billion to $2.4 billion.
Operations and maintenance spending is boosted from $56 billion in the current fiscal year to $59 billion in the 2017 request, representative of the Army’s commitment to rebuilding “current readiness at the expense of future modernization and end strength,” according to budget documents.
“As we built this budget and sought to strike the best possible balance within our topline funding level, we ensured that our absolute number-one priority remained readiness,” Army Budget Director Maj. Gen. Thomas Horlander, said during a press conference on Tuesday.
“Resourcing constraints did not allow us to modernize our equipment and facilities at the same pace as we sought to minimize the risk to current readiness,” Horlander added.
Personnel continues to be the Army’s most expensive item, at $55.3 billion, a slight drop from $56.2 billion in the current fiscal year. The request supports an Army of 460,000 active duty soldiers, a National Guard of 335,000 troops and 195,000 reservists. Plans are to further reduce active duty end strength to 450,000 in fiscal 2018, though the Guard and Reserve are slated to remain at 2017 levels.
The Army will maintain 30 Brigade Combat Teams (BCT) during fiscal 2017, though one Stryker BCT will convert to a dismounted infantry BCT during the year.
Aircraft procurement is cut nearly in half from the current fiscal year, though the budget supports procurement of all operational rotorcraft. The Army requested a total–including OCO–$3.9 billion for new aircraft for fiscal 2017, down from $6 billion in the current fiscal year. Tactical and support vehicle procurement also took a slight downturn from a total $3.4 billion in fiscal 2016 to a request of $3.3 billion.
Vehicle procurement likewise took a direct hit, though individual programs–the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV), modifications and upgrades to existing fleets–would receive infusions of cash.
JLTV was the big winner in vehicle procurement. The Army more than doubled its request for the vehicles from $250 million in the current fiscal year to $587 million. That will pay for 1,828 low-rate initial production (LRIP) JLTVs and support continued production and reliability qualification testing.
The Ground Mobility Vehicle (GMV), the Army’s troubled effort to develop a tracked ground combat vehicle, received a modest infusion of $5 million in research funding.
Overall spending on weapons and tracked vehicles, which includes Stryker, is steady at $2.4 billion. The 2017 request calls for $591 million in total Stryker funding to pay for fielding of the third brigade of double-V hull vehicles and procures 123 of the fourth DVH set. Most of that funding– $445 million–is for upgrades to existing vehicles. Stryker procurement is more than halved from $177 million in fiscal 2016 to $72 million in the 2017 request.
Stryker modifications also are cut dramatically from $388 million in the current fiscal year to $74 million in the 2017 request, primarily on account of the elimination of $314 from OCO.
Modifications to the M-1 Abrams tank, Paladin Integrated Management vehicles and Bradley fighting vehicles received increased funding in the 2017 request.
Both missile and ammunition procurement funding were increased in the 2017 request, reflecting the Army’s focus on readiness to fight in the near term. The Army wants $2.1 billion for missile procurement and modifications, up from $1.6 million in the current fiscal year. Spending on ammunition rose to $1.8 billion from $1.4 billion in fiscal 2016.
Funding for battlefield network communication modernization fell in the 2017 request to $1.15 billion from $1.23 billion in the current fiscal year, mostly due to a reduction in funding for the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) from $695 million to $438 million. Component funding for the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS), however, was boosted from $55 million in the current fiscal year to $274 million.