Lightening the Load

The Army's proposed $22.1 billion acquisition budget for fiscal 2005 is receiving more attention for what's not in it than what is.

In February, the Army scrapped a 21-year, multibillion-dollar effort to develop and build the Boeing-Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche helicopter, once dubbed "the quarterback of the digital battlefield." The Army expects to save $14.6 billion by 2011 by cutting the Comanche.

"If you take a look at when Comanche was envisioned, starting in 1983, and you take a look at the threat that we faced at that time and the kind of battlefield that we envisioned, Comanche made a lot of sense. But it makes less sense today as we go forward," Army Chief of Staff Peter Schoomaker said at a Pentagon briefing Feb. 23 to announce the termination.

Instead, the Army will spend most of that money on upgrading and buying more armed reconnaissance, utility and cargo helicopters. Specifically, the service will modernize 1,400 aircraft so they can fly beyond 2020, buy 800 new helicopters for Army Reserve and National Guard units, and invest heavily in unmanned aerial vehicles.

Cutting weapons programs is not new for the Army. Last year, it saved several billion dollars by canceling smaller programs. A year earlier, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered the cancellation of the $11 billion Crusader artillery system. Those savings will go toward a lighter, more agile and more lethal force by the end of this decade.

"As part of the past four budget submissions, our Army made difficult choices to cancel and restructure programs, shifting resources to the development of transformational capabilities," Claude Bolton Jr., assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, told a Senate Armed Services subcommittee in March.

The Army proposes to spend $11.7 billion on procurement and $10.4 billion on research, development, testing and evaluation in fiscal 2005, which together make up its total acquisition budget. In fiscal 2004, it spent $24.5 billion on acquisition.

The Army recently began fielding General Dynamics and General Motors' Stryker Brigade Combat Teams, a redesigned contingent of lightweight, armored fighting vehicles that require fewer troops. The teams eventually will replace traditional combat formations. Later this year, the Army will field a third Stryker team. The 2005 budget calls for $957 million to field a fourth Stryker brigade.

The Army views the Strykers as an interim solution until it can field the next-generation Future Combat System. Boeing is leading an effort to develop the manned and unmanned armored ground vehicles that will become the service's primary warfighting platform. The Army proposes spending $3.1 billion in fiscal 2005 to develop the Future Combat System.

Other Army spending priorities include the Patriot Missile Air Defense System ($577.2 million); the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles ($505.7 million); the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System ($378.9 million); Humvees ($303.7 million); Abrams tank upgrades ($308.3 million), and the Shadow Tactical unmanned aerial vehicle ($146.6 million).

Additionally, the Army serves as the executive agent for the Defense Department's service and support contracts for rebuilding Iraq. As of mid-March, the Army awarded more than 1,500 contracts valued at $9.7 billion. As a result, Halliburton, the global services contractor, has become the Army's second-largest contractor, with more than $2.9 billion in Army contracts in fiscal 2003. In fiscal 2002, Halliburton ranked 15th among Army contractors, with $365 million in work.