As part of the Joint Force, the Army is transitioning from combat toward the Joint Force of 2020 and the fiscal year 2013 budget is expected to reflect that, defense officials said.
As part of a Pentagon briefing yesterday detailing fiscal year 2013 budget priorities and choices, the Defense Department plans for the Army include terminating Humvee upgrades, supporting the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV), delaying helicopter modernization, and reducing funds for Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV), Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System (JLENS) and the Joint Air To Ground Munition (JAGM).
The President’s budget will be released Feb. 13, and will contain specific program figures. Defense officials head to Congress to explain their choices and priorities next week.
Responding to the strategic guidance for an agile and flexible future force, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said, “we will have an adaptable and battle-tested Army that is our nation’s force for decisive action, capable of defeating any adversary on land…We will have a significant land force presence in places like Korea and in the Middle East. But at the same time, we will emphasize special operations forces. And we will also emphasize a rotational presence so that we can establish the kind of partnerships that I discussed and provide training and advice in other parts of the world.”
However, that Army force will be smaller, over five years moving to 490,000 from today’s 562,000, he said.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Martin Dempsey said he’s confident that 490,000 is the right number of Army forces for 2017, though it might not be the right number for 2020.
The point is, as Dempsey pointed out he said while Army Chief of Staff is for the force to be “adaptable enough to provide the greatest number of options given the security environment we face.”
Now, the demand is dropping for an Army geared to conduct counterinsurgency and stability operations.
“I think it’s perfectly reasonable that the force structure of the active Army would go down as well,” Dempsey said.
After a speech earlier in the week, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno responded to a question by saying he will have a troop reduction “ramp” that gives the service enough time to bring the force structure down while taking care of soldiers and their families and meeting the commitments in Afghanistan.
Additionally, Odierno said he was “satisfied” with the five year period to reduce troops.
The DoD document on budget priorities and choices confirms the Air Force will “divest” itself of the 38 C-27J aircraft that help support soldiers in Afghanistan, something Odierno believed would come to pass. The Army and Air Force are working on an agreement on troop support in the future (Defense Daily, Jan 26).
DoD is also making substantial reductions to programs experiencing cost, schedule or performance risk, such as the Army’s GCV, “delayed by protest, thus freeing up available funding for other priorities,” the White Paper said.
Also, the Army-led JLENS funds will be “curtailed, because of cost and operational mobility concerns.
Another program that would “offer or augment” existing capability but at “significantly” higher cost, is JAGM, which will see “significantly reduced but limited funding sustained to enable lower cost alternatives such as Hellfire.”
Delayed three to five years will be helicopter modernization in Army aviation, though there is no specificity on what program or programs would be involved.
Additionally, the budget terminates Humvee upgrades and focuses modernization resources on the JLTV.