Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) continues to push for support for more funds to keep the U.S. tank industrial base viable.
“Notwithstanding your assurances, I remain concerned that we as a nation are depending on foreign military sales to sustain domestic tank production,” Brown wrote Army Secretary John McHugh in a June 7 letter.
The Army did not request funds for tank production in the Fiscal Year 2012 budget and said at the time it wanted to temporarily stop procurement and modernization of the tank until 2017. Congress restored funding, which the Army again did not request in the FY ’13 budget.
Since each foreign military sale is different, it “leaves too much to chance,” he wrote. Pending FMS sales McHugh referenced in his letter are not under contract and even when they are contracted it is “a rare occurrence” for an FMS case to be awarded on its original schedule.
Since each FMS case concerns a different tank configuration, some international sales don’t support all the tank industrial base.
Also, given the lead time for U.S. M1A2 tank production, more procurement funds are required in the defense budget near term to ensure continued production, he said.
Brown April 17 wrote McHugh about his concerns on the Army’s plans for continued production of the M1 Abrams series main battle tanks.
At that time, Brown and Sens. Robert Casey (D-Pa.,) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) wrote to Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) colleagues in favor of continuing funding for Abrams tanks in the Fiscal Year 2013 budget.
The senators requested SASC fund 33 M1A2 SEP Abrams tanks in FY 2013, which would keep the production line ticking over and avoid eroding the industrial base and job losses (Defense Daily, April 23).
At issue is work at the Lima Army Tank Plant in Lima, Ohio, and suppliers to original tank manufacturer, General Dynamics [GD], many of whom visited Capitol Hill in April to air their concerns (Defense Daily, April 2).
In a May 11 response, McHugh assured Brown the Army was not shutting down tank production.
Brown asked for McHugh’s continued support for more funds to keep the tank industrial base in the United States going.