Much like its House counterparts, the Senate Armed Services Committee deviated from the Pentagon’s acquisition request not to alter military strategy but rather to protect the industrial base and the National Guard.
In major programs acquisition, the Senate committee deviated from the House and Pentagon in just three areas: it provided additional funds for Bradley fighting vehicle modifications, it more than doubled the House’s proposed Abrams modifications initiative, and it added about $200 million to UH-72A Lakota procurement compared to the administration request.
None of these three programs are emerging requirements, nor are they particularly applicable to the administration’s Pacific pivot or crisis response operations in the Middle East. But they protect the ground vehicle industrial base and the National Guard, which both saw strong support when defense officials testified to Congress earlier this year.
In the case of the Bradleys, the Pentagon asked for and the House provided $107.5 million for modifications. A SASC press release – the final text has not yet been released even though the committee passed the bill on May 22 – says that the senators provided $144.5 million. It notes “additional funds are a Chief of Staff of the Army unfunded priority and reduces risk in the armored vehicle industrial base.”
The same note accompanies the bullet point about the M1 Abrams tank modifications, for which SASC provided $261 million compared to the House’s $120 million – for a modification program the Pentagon had not requested in its budget submission.
The increased Lakota funding aimed to protect the National Guard from losing any additional aircraft, as the Army seeks to restructure how helicopters are distributed among the active, reserve and Guard units. “At the request of the chief of the National Guard Bureau, the secretary of defense directed the Army to procure 100 additional [light utility helicopters] as a replacement training aircraft rather than transfer any from National Guard for that purpose. Additional funds would authorize procurement of a total 90 new aircraft to [replace] the Army’s legacy aviation training aircraft,” the SASC press release reads. The 90 helos would cost nearly $200 million in fiscal year 2015, bumping the Lakota procurement spending from the Pentagon’s and House’s $416.6 million to the SASC’s higher $612.6 million.
To support the Army National Guard, both the House and Senate armed services committees added $98.4 million to the UH-60 Black Hawk procurement account, bringing it to about $1.4 billion. They both nearly doubled the Navy’s buy of Tomahawk missiles, providing $276.3 million compared to the Pentagon’s requested $194.3 million; more than doubled procurement dollars for the Hercules recovery vehicle, providing about $125 million each compared to the requested $52.5 million; and added $22.6 million for C-130 engine upgrades where the Pentagon hadn’t asked for anything, all in the name of industrial base preservation.
The only real deviation that constitutes a policy disagreement was the House and Senate committee’s decision to double missile defense support to Israel. They offered $351 million for the David’s Sling, Arrow and Iron Dome missile defense projects with Israel.