The Army’s fiscal year 2016 budget request acknowledges that it can’t have a ready force now and invest in future warfighting systems given the tight budget environment, so the service chose to prioritize operational readiness and higher troop levels now while taking risk in longer-term technological superiority.
Given increasing global obligations, the Army’s budget request attempts to slow the reduction in the Army’s active duty force—not dropping to 450,000 active duty troops until FY ’18 instead of ‘17–and it boosts readiness levels through increased operations and maintenance funding. Those troops will be organized to be more agile, and their training will emphasize a range of warfighting core competencies rather than just security assistance.
Photo: U.S. Army
That near-term readiness comes at the expense of technological superiority in the future. The Army does not have a single new major modernization project planned until next decade, and Director of Army Budget Maj. Gen. Thomas Horlander said Monday at a Pentagon budget briefing that procurement spending as a percentage of the overall Army budget is at a historic low–18 percent, compared to 20 to 22 percent. “Continuous delayed or reduced funding in our modernization and equipping accounts puts the Army’s technological overmatch advantage at risk,” he warned.
“We are trying to mitigate the risks as best we can by doing the incremental improvements for the existing fleets,” Deputy Director for Army Budget Davis Welch told reporters at the same Pentagon briefing. “Certainly those fleets have been in the inventory a long time, the M1 tanks since 1980. So we are incrementally improving those proven systems and trying to extend their useful life as either the topline increases and we can start a more robust procurement program, or go back for the Future Infantry Combat Vehicle, which is what the Army would like to continue doing once toplines return … to a higher level.”
The research, development and acquisition budget is $23.1 billion, up from FY ’15 and back to FY ’13 levels, before the brunt of sequestration hit. The Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) request of $6.9 billion is even with last year’s. Welch praised the Army for maintaining “a fairly robust science and technology program as other [research, development and acquisition] accounts are being reduced. And I think that’s, with the topline we’re given, about the best we can do at the current funding level.”
The procurement request of $16.1 billion is up more than $2 billion from last year. “Though this is a sizable increase,” Welch said, the Army has still spent about $4 billion a year less than it should have to reach its 20-percent procurement spending over the past few years, including in this request.
And, that boost in procurement spending may not end up as large as planned–the Pentagon’s budget request is $36 billion above the congressionally mandated spending caps, and breaching those caps would result in another round of across-the-board cuts. Army documents note that at the president’s spending level, it would maintain 475,000 active duty soldiers, prioritize helicopter fleet modernization and ground force investments in the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle and the Paladin Integrated Management. Under sequestration-level spending, the Army would go to a 470,000-troop active force with tiered readiness, and modernization accounts would be cut by 12 percent.
Under the higher spending-level request, the Army would invest $783 million in its Warfighter Information Network–Tactical (WIN-T), including upgrades for 31 WIN-T Increment 1 units to enhance interoperability with the fielded Increment 2 units, as well as procuring 248 communication nodes for Increment 2 and fielding and supporting already-procured units.
The Army would spend $308 million to buy 450 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, with low-rate initial production (LRIP) beginning soon after a single vendor is selected in the fourth quarter of FY ’15.
The budget request includes $561.1 million to complete procurement of the third Double-V Hull brigade set of Stryker vehicles and procure another 87 vehicles for the fourth brigade set–these with Engineering Change Proposal 1 technologies built in. The funding would also support fleet modifications and address technology obsolescence.
The Army is also asking for $367.9 million to continue with Abrams tank modifications, $273.9 million to buy 30 Paladin Integrated Management LRIP units, $334 million for family of medium tactical vehicle procurement and $28 million for family of heavy tactical vehicle procurement.
The RDT&E budget heavily invests in the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle, setting aside $230.2 million for the detailed design of components and subsystems.
On the aviation side, the Army is requesting nearly $4.6 billion for its aircraft portfolio in FY ’16, up 9.6 percent from the nearly $4.2 billion enacted this year. The service is also requesting $820 million in aircraft modifications, down from the $878 enacted in FY ’15. This funding request notably includes $49 million in overseas contingency operations (OCO) funding while the no OCO funds were appropriated last year.
The Army wants to ramp up procurement of remanufactured AH-64 Apache Block IIIA, or AH-64E, helicopters, requesting $1.2 billion in FY ’16, a 63 percent increase from the $716 million enacted in FY ‘15. The service also wants $210 million this year for advance procurement of remanufactured Apache IIIAs, nearly 33 percent more than the $158 million previously allotted. The $1.2 billion would procure 64 AH-64E “Echo” models and associated modifications to the AH-64D fleet.
The Army wants 5.9 percent more funding in FY ’16 for multi-year procurement of UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters as it requests $1.4 billion, $80 million more than what was enacted in FY ’15. The service also wants $127 million for Black Hawk advanced procurement, $10 million more than enacted last year.
The Army wants roughly $1 billion in FY ’16 for CH-47 Chinook cargo helicopter multi-year procurement, up nearly 15 percent from the $892 enacted in FY ’15. The service, however, seeks nearly 3 percent less for Chinook advance procurement, with $99 million requested this year. Congress appropriated $102 million for Chinook advance procurement in FY ’15.
Despite these investments in incremental improvements to existing platforms, the Army makes clear it is facing a tough future if Congress cannot find a way to undo sequestration. In the near term, this budget request “partially mitigates the risk inherent with funding reductions under sequestration levels … and begins to restore funding in modernization that remains near historic lows.” In the longer-term, however, “sequestration in FY16-FY23 dramatically suppresses defense spending without acknowledging the world in which we live.”