Army confident about balancing costs of FCS, reset

Although they face significant financial strain, Army leaders are pushing to move forward with the service’s massive modernization program, the Future Combat Systems, and insist the ambitious endeavor will not be cut to help fund the Army’s growth and equipment repair.

{mosads}The Army’s deputy chief of staff for programs, Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes, said he has “no concerns” about the Army’s large reset and Iraq war needs hindering the funding for the Future Combat Systems (FCS).

“We will always fight for it, even as we fight for the reset of the force,” Speakes said in a Monday panel discussion during the Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting.

In order to reset battle-worn equipment from Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army will face bills of about $14 billion a year for at least two to three years after major combat operations end, according to Army leaders. 

Currently, the Army is contending with a long list of equipment in need of reset, including 91 aircraft, 724 tanks, 1,184 Bradley Fighting Vehicles and 21,707 tactical wheeled vehicles.

The Army is kicking off an effort to reset and repair equipment more quickly. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey asked the Army to design a plan to reset the combat equipment returning from Iraq and Afghanistan within six months for active units and within two years for reserve units.  The Army plans to conduct a pilot program of the new reset strategy on the units returning from combat this winter.

Meanwhile, the Army counts on taxpayers to understand that U.S. soldiers need to be technologically advanced and to support both the reset needs and FCS, Speakes said.

“It is our largest modernization program in the last 40 years. It’s 3 percent of our overall budget,” Casey said. “To me, that’s about the minimum investment you can have in the future.” Casey added that there is strong support for the program in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

As part of FCS, the Army has started testing and fielding some technologies as they are developed. Several technologies being used in Iraq are derived from FCS prototypes, including vehicle armor to protect against improvised explosive devices, Speakes said in a short interview. “It’s giving us critical capabilities in the force,” he said.

With thousands of new Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles on its procurement list, the Army is considering how to fit such vehicles into a future force. Speakes said the Army is at the very beginning of the process, trying to learn about the vehicles’ strengths and weaknesses, how they perform as patrol vehicles and not just as part of specialized units, which models work best and how many the Army should buy.

Even though the Army is confident about its massive modernization program, funding for the FCS will be caught in a tough negotiation process as the House and Senate are in conference proceedings for the 2008 defense authorization and appropriations bills. House authorizers slashed the program by $867 million, while Senate authorizers added $ 115 million to the Army’s $3.7 billion request. House appropriators cut the program by $406 million, while their Senate counterparts funded in full the Army’s request.