The Senate Appropriations Committee passed its version of the defense spending bill and released its report recently — the last of the four defense committees to do so. Today, we take a look at what the latest markup means for the Army in context of how the other committees acted; in particular, the M1 Abrams, JTRS HMS, FMTV, AH-64, UH-60, WIN-T, and Stryker programs.
M1 Abrams upgrades sail through — The Ohio delegation is getting its way in Congress, as the defense committees for another year continue to show near-unanimous support of upgrading Abrams tanks in the interest of maintaining the industrial base over the protests of the Pentagon. Senate appropriators joined their House counterparts, as well as House authorizers, in adding $120 million for the program.
Read more M1 Abrams analysis >>>
SAC not eager to buy JTRS manpack radios — The Pentagon slashed buys of JTRS HMS radios big time over the Future Years Defense Plan in this year’s budget, and apparently they didn’t go far enough in Congress’ eyes. Senate appropriators cut all 2,674 units the Defense Department was asking for “due to contract award delays” — an even bigger cut once you realize that as recently as last year the Pentagon had planned to buy 10,509 units in fiscal 2015. House appropriators were a bit more modest in their cuts, but still trimmed $50 million and 761 units. Authorizers also made cuts, with the Senate panel arguing that it had recommended the decrease “due to slow execution of available prior year funds.” Read more JTRS HMS analysis >>>
FMTV gets boost to protect industrial base — Congress now clearly wants to go back to buying FMTVs right away, despite Pentagon plans to wait until 2017 to start buying again. Senate appropriators went even further than the other committees in adding $250 million, arguing that shutting down the line for two years makes no sense — an argument that has worked well in continuing M1 Abrams funding. Bill language states that such a shutdown will “negatively impact the industrial base, resulting in higher acquisition costs when the Army restarts procurement in fiscal year 2017 as planned.” Lawmakers blamed Army budget practices for failing to fund the FMTV as a high-priority program, and the bill directs the Army to work on its process to keep this from happening in the future. Read more FMTV analysis >>>
Hill continues to reject Apache transfer — The Army has so far failed to sell the transfer of Apaches out of the National Guard to Congress, with Senate appropriators joining their House counterparts in questioning the move. In particular, they noted that the Army won’t save as much money as it thinks due to the need to buy more UH-72 Lakota helicopters and train Army Active Duty and National Guard pilots for their new missions. As a result, the panel wants the Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) office to take a crack at a full cost analysis of the move, providing a report within four months of the enactment of the bill. However, as a side note, appropriators do disagree on how many Apaches the Army should be buying in the meantime (House lawmakers wants three extra) and must work that out in conference. Read more AH-64 analysis >>>
SAC feels Army asking for enough Black Hawks — Senate appropriators don’t agree with the House’s move to add $119 million and eight aircraft to the Pentagon’s request of 79 UH-60 Black Hawks, opting to make no changes to funding levels. Language included in the bill acknowledged that the National Guard would have to keep aging UH-60As five years longer than the Active Army — until 2025 — but recommends merely accelerating the fielding of UH-60M helicopters to the National Guard rather than buying additional helos. Read more UH-60 analysis >>>
WIN-T delays lead to more cuts — Last year, appropriators slashed $204 million from WIN-T procurement, and it appears we can expect more of the same this year with Senate lawmakers cutting 208 million and 86 units from the WIN-T request (reducing it to 1,194 units). House appropriators cut double the amount of units, but half the amount of money, so there will still be some things for the two sides to work out in conference. Appropriators didn’t include extensive language discussing why they made the cuts, but did suggest that “program delays” were to blame for the cut. The Army opted to slow down the WIN-T program in its fiscal 2015 budget request, shifting buys to the right. It wasn’t enough of a shift for lawmakers, apparently. Read more WIN-T analysis >>>
Stryker upgrades get full support — Senate appropriators sided with the House on funding a fourth double-V hull brigade set for Stryker vehicles, although it only approved $25 million instead of $50 million. That leaves the SASC as the only committee to not add funding for the upgrades. The program is still at risk, though: the Pentagon argued in a report earlier this year that there would be no more double-V hull upgrades after fiscal 2016 if sequestration takes effect. Read more Stryker analysis >>>