Army and Marine Corps officials explained April 2 to the House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee how the reset after operations in Afghanistan and sequestration have come together to force them to simplify their ground vehicle and helicopter fleets.
Subcommittee chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) summarized all the changes in the Army’s helicopter fleet–divesting all OH-58D Kiowa Warriors and TH-67 training helos, consolidating the AH-64 Apaches and LUH-72 Lakotas to the active component, and moving all UH-60 Black Hawks to the National Guard–and asked if the fact that so many platforms could be cut out of the Army’s inventory is an indication the Army had excess capacity.
“We really didn’t have excess capacity, but what we could not afford was to sustain seven different models,” said Lt. Gen. James Barclay, deputy chief of staff of the Army for force development. “We had an aging training fleet, and an aging Kiowa Warrior fleet for the armed reconnaissance mission that we had tried to replace that did not produce any vendors that could meet those requirements. Based on the fiscal restraints we were under, the only thing we could do was consolidate and take this initiative to streamline, take out older airframes and get us down to those we can afford based on the fiscal constraints we’re under and still meet the mission set.”
Barclay noted the Army developed several different plans but agreed this was the best option.
As for the Marine Corps’ helicopter fleet, Lt. Gen. Glenn Walters, deputy commandant for programs and resources, said sequestration was a big threat to the top three rotorcraft priorities. Pointing to the V-22 Osprey program, Walters said that if the Bipartisan Budget Act hadn’t provided partial sequester relief in fiscal year 2015, the service would have to “bust the multiyear” procurement contract with Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. [TXT] andBoeing [BA]. The Marine Corps has plans to buy 19 V-22s in FY ’15, but without the multiyear contract the same amount of money would only buy 17 aircraft.
“You do that over across five years, I’ve lost two squadrons worth of aircraft over a five-year period,” he said.
Walters also said “we are watching very closely our 53-K program, that is the key to our future. That thing is going to lift everything we need to off the ships. And we’re trying to keep our H-1 program on track. So those are our three biggies.”
Walters also updated the subcommittee on the Marine Corps’ ground vehicles strategy, which will be updated in September. The Marines have 24,000 Humvees in varying conditions, he said, and will put about 6,800 of those through the Humvee Sustainment Modification Initiative.
“We’re in for about 5,500 [Joint Light Tactical Vehicles]. We’re in for Humvee SMI, which would put back the capability on the uparmored Humvee that it used to have when it wasn’t armored–we’ve got about 6,800 of those, so when you add those together, that’s about 12,000,” Walters said. “So we need about another 5,000 vehicles, so we’ll get that 17,000 [light vehicle requirement]. Those are going to be the legacy platforms that we’ll hold around, and those will be the first ones to roll out. All this is colored by the requirement to come in September this year with a new ground combat vehicle strategy.”
Anticipating questions from lawmakers, Walters added that the ground combat vehicle strategy could alter those numbers. “Should we be buying more JLTVs, less of these or more? Absolutely, that will be an option,” he said. “And then the requirements folks will come in and get the strategy done, and then we’ll see if we can fiscally afford it.”