The House Appropriations Committee last week passed its version of the fiscal 2015 defense spending bill, and just released the final report. We’ve taken an in-depth look at all programs affected, and today we’ll examine what this latest bill means for the Army’s programs.
HAC disagrees with removing Apaches from Guard — The committee added $78 million for three AH-64 Apaches and $119.2 million for eight UH-60 Black Hawks. What does this mean for the debate over the National Guard’s Apache and Black Hawk fleets? The committee is generally in favor of the Army’s restructuring of aviation assets and assigned the additional eight Black Hawks to the National Guard, but it wants to bar one key part of the restructuring: the transfer of Apaches out of the National Guard, according to language in the report.
Pentagon unable to scuttle Abrams upgrades — Once again, the administration has failed to convince Congress that M1 Abrams upgrades are a waste of money, it appears. House appropriators joined both authorization committees in adding funding for the measure as they did last year, including $120 million for the program — the same as House authorizers and $96 million more than Senate authorizers. Lawmakers want the Army to use the funds to reduce risk in the Abrams industrial base, which the Pentagon has repeatedly argued is not in danger despite the hiatus from procurement. Read more M1 Abrams analysis >>>
HAC sides with HASC on FMTV — Consensus is growing that the Army should buy FMTVs right away instead of waiting a couple years. The Army’s fiscal 2014 budget proposed to end FMTV production in fiscal 2014 with no further buys planned through the Future Years Defense Plan, but this year’s budget called for buys to restart with 884 vehicles in fiscal 2017 and another buy in fiscal 2018 of 870 vehicles. The House Appropriations Committee sided with House authorizers in adding $50 million, which would come out to about 180 vehicles based on how much the Army paid in previous budgets for FMTVs. Read more FMTV analysis >>
More support for fourth Stryker DVH brigade — The House Appropriations Committee also agreed with House authorizers on funding a fourth double-V-hull Stryker brigade set at $50 million. The DVH Stryker variant converts the flat-bottomed vehicle into one that can better survive a blast from an improvised explosive device, and since the program started General Dynamics has delivered 52 of the modified Stryker vehicles. We reported last month that GD had been awarded $163 million for 93 vehicles to be converted into the DVH design. Despite the Army’s departure from Iraq and Afghanistan where IEDs were prevalent, Congress appears to believe that these survivability upgrades are important to have regardless of the region in which they operate. Read more Stryker analysis >>>