Ground combat systems have overtaken aviation as the most expensive Army procurement portfolio, mainly to reinforce a return to fighting high-end decisive conflict in Europe and elsewhere.
Aviation procurement took a $400 million, or 10 percent, hit in the Army’s budget request unveiled Feb. 12, the third year in a row aircraft procurement has paid bills for other priorities. In fiscal 2017, aircraft procurement garnered $4.9 billion compared with $2.4 billion for weapons and tracked combat vehicles.
Ground systems procurement remained flat in the service’s fiscal 2018 request while aircraft purchasing was cut to $4.2 billion. In the most recent spending plan, aircraft procurement decreased further to $3.8 billion while ground combat systems funding nearly doubled to $4.5 billion.
“Over the last decade or so, aviation was the highwater mark appropriation,” Army Deputy Budget Director Davis Welch told reporters in a Feb. 13 briefing at the Pentagon. “They were taking the greater share of the procurement funds. With what we’re looking at doing as far as increasing readiness at the brigade combat level and replenishment of war reserves and missiles, it was just a balancing this year that missiles, munitions and weapons, combat tracked vehicles took a greater share.”
Investing in AH-64 Apache gunships and CH-47 Chinook heavy lift helicopters was appropriate for the relatively low-intensity conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan where the Army enjoyed uncontested airspace. Now the Army is preparing for a high-end near-peer conflict against adversaries like Russia where armored ground combat systems and long-range indirect fire will be at a premium, according to Jack Daniels, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for plans, programs and resources.
“If you look at what we’ve done the last 15 years, it is a light, aviation-centric fight, so we took a fair amount of risk in the heavy force,” Daniels said. “Now we are at a point where the systems are starting to age out and you’ve got to put in a significant investment to make sure your vehicles are able to function and have the right technology.”
The Army’s budget provides for a significant hike in ground combat vehicle purchases, most of them destined for Europe where they will constitute a second Armored Brigade Combat Team’s worth of pre-prepositioned equipment. The budget funds upgrades to 135 M1 Abrams tanks and 210 Bradley Fighting Vehicles and the purchase of 197 Armored Multipurpose Vehicles (AMPV) to bolster the ongoing effort to deter Russian aggression along NATO’s eastern flank.
Accordingly, the Defense Department has ratcheted up funding for the European Deterrence Initiative (EDI) – previously the European Reassurance Initiative (ERI) – from $4.8 billion in fiscal 2018 to $6.5 billion, which is reflective of the Army’s boosted weapon stockpile.
Indicative of the Army’s pivot from counterinsurgency to decisive-action fighting is the nearly 10-fold increase in artillery rounds requested in fiscal 2019 compared with 2018. The fiscal 2019 budget request calls for purchasing 148,287 155 mm artillery rounds compared with just 16,573 in the current fiscal year’s plan. Those rounds are needed both to replace projectiles fired in combat, but also to provide live-fire training and rebuild stockpiles for the next fight.
“Most of the past 15 years, we’ve been operating in a COIN environment,” Daniels said. “Not a lot of call for heavy munitions. When you come back and train to the original … configurations, you’re training requirement goes up. … We are training to fight in a heavy fight.”