Undersecretary of the Army Patrick Murphy is looking for efficiencies in the way the service does business to redirect wasted funding to near- and long-term readiness.
“Every dollar saved through efficient business practices is a dollar we can spend ensuring our Army never faces a fair fight,” Murphy said Friday at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C.
The Army is not a publicly traded business, but its leaders can learn from sound business management practices perfected in the private sector, Murphy said. As undersecretary, Murphy is the chief business manager of the enormous organization of nearly 1 million active and reserve personnel plus civilian employees and contractors.
“We need to make sure that when we report to our shareholders, which are the American people, and our board of directors, the U.S. Congress, that their money is being well spent,” he said.
Two major requirements are fighting for priority in the Army’s budgeting plan: readiness to fight impending potential wars and investment in modernization programs for future combat. Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley has made readiness his top priority because the service’s ability to fight a high-end conflict with a near-peer nation has atrophied after 15 years of counterinsurgency operations. Murphy echoed Milley’s plan.
“Readiness wins wars,” Murphy said. “Smaller modernization investments risk our ability to fight and win in the future. We are mortgaging future readiness.”
With what modernization funds it has, the Army is investing in several key areas Murphy outlined on Friday.
A top priority is modernizing aviation by divesting the oldest airframes, namely the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, while upgrading the UH-60 Black Hawk and AH-64 Apache fleets.
Efforts also are underway to strengthen the Army’s communications network against cyber attacks. It also is strengthening the integrated air and missile defense systems that cover deployed forces from air attack.
The Army has prioritized several ground vehicle modernization programs beyond replacement of the Humvee with the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV). These include the Ground Combat Vehicle, lethality and performance enhancements to the Stryker wheeled vehicle, the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle and the new-start mobile protected firepower.
Finally, the Army is investing as much as it can in technologies to counter emerging threats. These include Active Protection Systems to protect combat vehicles from anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM).
“These challenges require modernization programs to develop material solutions,” he said.