Iraq-bound troops have adequate gear, Army officials say

Army leaders attempted Wednesday to allay mounting congressional concerns that thousands of additional soldiers deploying to Iraq do not have adequate protective gear and other equipment.

Army Secretary Francis Harvey told the House Armed Services Committee that all of the 21,500 troops deploying under President Bush's "surge" will be fully trained and equipped. However, with non-deployed forces experiencing lagging readiness levels, some units will not receive all of their gear until they arrive at a staging base in Kuwait, Army Chief of Staff Peter Schoomaker said.

Schoomaker, who will step down as the service's top officer April 10, reiterated his concerns that, while deployed units are fully equipped, Army units based in the United States do not have adequate gear. "It's the strategic depth that concerns me," he said, stating that the Army's "immediate challenge" is to improve the force's operational readiness.

The Army's readiness levels have complicated efforts to quickly equip deploying forces. "Scurry is a kind word in terms of the machinations we go through," Schoomaker said.

During the hearing, Schoomaker and Harvey called on the committee to fully fund the Army's Future Combat Systems program, a sprawling $160 billion system of air and ground vehicles tied together by an extensive network. Over the last several years, Congress has trimmed $825 million from the program, one of several reasons the Army decided recently to forgo development on four of the 18 FCS systems.

If the Army does not field FCS, the service will continue to "chase our tail" technologically, Schoomaker said. "It's fundamental to the future of the Army, in my view," he added.

Harvey, meanwhile, stressed that the Army might decide in the future to pursue the four systems trimmed from the FCS program, including two classes of unmanned aerial vehicles. "We've kind of deferred them," Harvey said. "We haven't canceled them."

Schoomaker and Harvey assured lawmakers that the Army will be able to recruit enough new troops to meet the permanent troop-strength increases proposed over the next five years. The Army, Harvey said, has a new advertising campaign and plans to invest heavily in recruiting efforts in fiscal 2008 and beyond. Last month, Bush proposed gradually growing the Army by 65,000 troops and the Marine Corps by another 27,000.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Wednesday demanded adequate armor and equipment for the additional troops. Calling the troop escalation "unwise" in a letter to Bush, the Democratic leaders cited press reports that the Army lacks thousands of advanced armor kits for Humvees and crucial equipment such as jamming devices and radios.

"Mr. President, it is wrong to deploy troops to the Iraqi theater until they have the up-armored Humvees, equipment, lodging, training and other support required to carry out their mission," they wrote. Pelosi and other Democratic leaders have said the resolution being debated on the House floor -- and expected to be approved Friday with Senate action to follow -- is just the first step of the Democrats' strategy on Iraq.

Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha, D-Pa., has pledged to make the full equipping of additional troops part of the fiscal 2007 war supplemental and fiscal 2008 Defense spending bill.