The Army’s fiscal year 2021 budget, expected to be released in mid-February, will include another round of program cuts as the service looks to free up additional funds required to shift from prototyping new weapon systems to buying the first low-rate production units.
Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told reporters on Wednesday cuts to legacy programs will continue over subsequent years as the service faces likely flat or declining budgets, while he expecting decisions under the ‘night court’ process to only get tougher over time.
“We’re going to have to do night court whether I’m in this job or not. Because if you look at how we’re trying to transform the force, and if the prototypes start landing over the next 18 months and they work, then you’ve got to make choices. You start scaling long-range fires before helicopters before armored vehicles,” McCarthy said. “And it’s ultimately a tiered acquisition approach. You select units that you outfit, instead of spreading the peanut butter thin. Those are big muscle movements that will happen in the Army over the next 24 months as we yield success.”
The Army’s first round of night court to inform the FY ’20 budget resulted in 186 program cuts or reductions, including truncating the buys of CH-47 Chinook Block II helicopters and Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, while finding $33 billion to shift toward modernization over the next five years.
McCarthy on Tuesday did not specify how many additional program cuts will be included in the upcoming FY ’21 budget release as a result of the latest night court, while noting that it won’t be as extensive as last year’s outcome.
“It was more accounting than anything. But there were some hard choices. There were some cuts. You’ll see that here in a couple weeks. There were some programs that we either truncated or cut again,” McCarthy said. “If we’re successful over the next 18 months, then harder choices are coming again.”
The Army secretary also provided an update on the Bradley-replacing Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle program, which has received interest from lawmakers after General Dynamics’ [GD] offering was the only bid sample accepted for the competition’s prototype phase.
McCarthy told reporters an announcement on the program is likely for this week, while declining to specify if that could be a downselect decision or a restructuring of the competition.
“We’re looking very hard at OMFV and we’re getting ready to make a decision and that’s imminent,” McCarthy said. “On other programs, we are concerned about competition. But the thing we’re most concerned about is time. We have a refocused modernization program. We’re going on our fourth budget in a row with consistency and focus on investments. We’re trying to create a sense of urgency in the defense industry, in particular. The world is very complex and dangerous and we can’t afford to wait.”