Senate Armed Services chairman: Army funding requests might fall short

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., Tuesday said Army officials have signaled to lawmakers and congressional aides that they need $260 billion to $270 billion annually through fiscal 2011 to pay war bills while adequately funding its regular accounts. But Levin expressed concern that the Army, whose fiscal 2009 baseline budget request totals $140.7 billion, will not be able to make up the rest of the funding needed for next year in the fiscal 2009 war supplemental spending bill.

"That would appear to be somewhat doubtful, in which case we need to fully understand the implications for the Army," Levin told Army leaders during a hearing Tuesday. "We need to understand fully what needs to be done to ensure an Army that is ready for all of its potential missions, both Tuesday and in the future." The Pentagon has requested a $70 billion placeholder for the wars in fiscal 2009, with a full supplemental request expected on Capitol Hill this spring. At Levin's urging earlier this month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates estimated the wars would cost $170 billion next year, but Gates cautioned he had no confidence in that figure.

Army leaders Tuesday stressed the importance of investing in the Army's long-term transformation plans while it still is heavily engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their comments came on the heels of recent statements by Gates that it is "hard to see" how there will be enough funding to complete the entire $160 billion Future Combat Systems program, the centerpiece of the Army's technology transformation efforts.

"I think you've got a problem if the secretary honestly and candidly feels he cannot fund the Future Combat Systems," said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I. Army Chief of Staff George Casey said he spoke with Gates after his testimony and was assured that the secretary does not have basic problems with the program and supports the Army's efforts to field pieces of the system of manned and unmanned air and ground vehicles as they are developed. Despite its total price tag, Army Secretary Pete Geren argued that the FCS program will never equal more than one-third of the service's annual research and development budgets or more than one-twelfth of its entire annual budget.

Meanwhile, both Geren and Casey said they want to cut back overseas deployments from 15 months to 12 months as quickly as possible to ease the strain on their force. Geren said the Army could reduce overseas tours by this summer, provided current plans hold to reduce the number of active-duty Army forces in Iraq and Afghanistan to 15 brigades by July. Constant overseas deployments have had detrimental effects on the readiness of both troops and equipment, the Army leaders acknowledged.

"We are consuming readiness now as quickly as we build it," Geren told the panel.