The Army is back to buying medium tactical vehicles in a big way — and the reason may be because the service has lost hope that the funds will be there for a new, high-end vehicle to replace it.
As recently as the fiscal 2014 budget, the Future Years Defense Plan called for the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles program to end with 2014’s buy of 837 vehicles. But in last year’s budget proposal, the Army had put FMTVs back in the budget, penciling in 884 vehicles in 2017 and 870 in 2018. Now, the service is calling for an extra 3,500 vehicles over the FYDP and appears fulling invested in buying FMTVs again.
Last year, appropriators expressed their displeasure with the Army declining to fund FMTVs, adding $100 million to the budget for that purpose. In the Senate Appropriations Committee’s markup of the bill, which added $250 million, lawmakers wrote that a lack of funding in fiscal year 2015 and 2016 would shut down FMTV production for two years and negatively impact the industrial base. The language further noted that FMTVs are a “higher overall priority within the Army than the funded requirement,” and therefore the service should prioritize funding toward dealing with a shortfall in FMTVs.
Now, the Army appears to have relented, with the FYDP calling for 1,357 vehicles to be purchased this year followed by 458 in 2017, 508 in 2018, 611 in 2019, and 595 in 2020. Why?
Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said the Army realized they would not have the funding needed to develop a new vehicle that would incorporate new technologies. So, in what could be a rare moment of budget realism, the Army appears to be settled on going with variants that have already been developed, Clark said.
Clark noted that the service “always assumed” it would get more money later to buy a high-end truck that would improve on FMTV. But, as is often the case in recent years, you can’t assume anything when it comes to Pentagon funding.