Army hopes troop buildup won't rob modernization

The Army's budget chief on Wednesday expressed hope that an expensive plan to dramatically enlarge the force over the next several years will not require Defense officials and lawmakers to cut funding for the service's technology transformation efforts.

"You should not sacrifice modernization -- the seed corn of what you need to have an Army to fight 10 to 15 years down the road," Lt. Gen. David Melcher told reporters after a breakfast speech delivered by Gen. Richard Cody, the Army vice chief of staff.

The Army, Melcher added, will continue to ask for the money, personnel and programs it needs. "We're pretty forthright about that," he said.

News of the Army's intentions to boost the overall size of its force began surfacing last month -- separate from talk of deploying more troops to Iraq -- when outgoing Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker left open the possibility of growing the total Army beyond the 30,000 additional soldiers authorized in recent years to meet the service's higher operating tempo overseas.

The Army now has 508,000 troops in its active component and has the authority to expand to 512,000 soldiers using supplemental wartime appropriations. Cody on Wednesday said the Army will reach that limit this year, and will make a decision in the next several months on how large the Army ultimately will be.

But the vice chief stressed that finding the correct balance of military specialties needed to conduct current and future operations is as important as adding to troop strength. "It's not just about combat brigades," Cody said. "It's about a total force."

Additional troops likely will continue to be funded out of wartime supplemental spending bills in fiscal 2008, despite lawmakers' growing frustrations with the twice-yearly emergency appropriations that circumvent traditional congressional oversight.

There is little time, Melcher said, to alter the Army's base budget to include the additional soldiers before the White House sends its fiscal 2008 request to Capitol Hill in early February.

"We built the '08 budget based upon the previous set of assumptions," Melcher said. However, the Army is evaluating what portion of the troop increase should be included in future defense budgets, he added. The Army estimates that it spends $1.2 billion for every 10,000 soldiers, not including much of the costs needed to train and equip units.

Meanwhile, Cody declined to comment on President Bush's anticipated announcement tonight to send roughly 20,000 more troops to Iraq to secure Baghdad and Anbar Province. But he hinted at the possibility of an upward adjustment of the Army's recruiting goals after the president outlines his new Iraq strategy to the nation.

Melcher, too, declined to comment on the so-called surge plan, which the White House on Wednesday said would cost $5.6 billion, an amount that presumably will be added to the supplemental spending request covering operations for the remainder of fiscal 2007. The White House will formally send that proposal to Capitol Hill, along with the fiscal 2008 budget next month.