Before the Army can modernize its vehicles and equipment, it has to identify legacy gear and then free up money by unceremoniously getting rid of what it no longer needs, the service’s top uniformed acquisition official said on Wednesday.

“If we are going to modernize, we have to start with understanding those things we are not going to keep, because it is costing us money,” Lt. Gen. Michael Williamson, principal military deputy to the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, technology and logistics. “I know it seems counterintuitive, but the start of our modernization strategy starts with divestiture. And there shouldn’t be this notion of protectionism of existing systems.”

The default priority for managers of legacy programs and the incumbent contractors that built them is to retrench and protect a particular program from divestiture or replacement, Williamson said to a breakfast meeting of the Association of the U.S. Army at its headquarters outside Washington, D.C. All interested parties looking from the outside in are bent on disrupting those programs so new technologies can be introduced and new business blooms.

“We are too committed, too linked to our programs,” Williamson said.

The M113 armored troop transport, Williamson said, has been in service since before he was born, which is “crazy.” Those vehicles have reached their maximum utility and need to be replaced in the near term, he said.

Other legacy platforms like the UH-60 Black Hawk, the AH-64 Apache, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle and the M1 Abrams main battle tank were introduced in the 1980s based on 1970s technology but have been consistently enhanced through the present, he said. Vehicles and systems that still have potential should be upgraded until the only next step is a new-start aircraft or tank, he said.

“What is the best way to provide capability but create ways to continue to improve upon that capability until you get to the point where you realize it has to be replaced with the next-best system?” he said.

The Army and industry excel at extending the life of legacy platforms or adapting them to emerging threats until the only solution is to start from scratch, he said. Williamson gave the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) as an example.

“Our industrial base is probably the best in the world at making our systems better,” he said. “I would challenge any of you to go out to a flight line today and look at an Apache or a Chinook or a Black Hawk and tell me it’s the same aircraft. It looks the same, but the internal components are all different and all better.”

The Army bolted on armor to its Humvees to the point that their suspensions gave out to protect soldiers from homemade bombs. It also spent billions of dollars on rapidly procuring mine-resistant, ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles for the same purpose.

JLTV and the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle that will replace the M113 “are great examples where we realized we could not continue with the 113 series of vehicles, or – as good as MRAP is and as much value as every one brought to our force in this fight – that we needed to find another vehicle to start looking at how to assess my light tactical vehicle fleet and bring in a capability like the JLTV.”

“Those are very conscious decisions by us to buy new,” he added.