Army's $265B Per Year Request Faces Doubts

[unhappycamper]

Army's $265B Per Year Request Faces Doubts
Aviation Week's DTI | February 28, 2008

The U.S. Army will need around $265 billion annually through fiscal 2011 to get itself back in shape from prolonged wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as transform its organization and update its equipment and train personnel, the land service's top two officials told senators Feb. 26.

But the armed service may only encounter growing skepticism on Capitol Hill over its budget requests in coming years -- especially for the massive Future Combat Systems (FCS) program -- if sentiment from members of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) is any indication.

At an annual oversight hearing Feb. 26, SASC Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) tried to hone in on recent commentary on FCS cuts from the Pentagon's chief, while he questioned meeting such large allocations every year. "That would be somewhat doubtful," Levin told Army Secretary Pete Geren and Gen. George Casey, chief of staff.

Even the ranking Republican at the SASC hearing, Sen. James Inhofe (Okla.), acknowledged a list of challenges facing the Army that Levin read aloud, but Inhofe said alleged acquisition shortfalls starting last decade were at least partially to blame. And he maintained that the Army -- as well as the rest of DOD -- should be funded more. "We've just got to rebuild," Inhofe said.

For their part, the Army secretary and top general acknowledged that the service is out of balance, a term they have chosen carefully to stress the strain the service is experiencing while trying to refute accusations that it is broken - a term used to describe the Army after the Vietnam War.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,163022,00.html



uhc comment: uhc to Inhofe: "Go fuck yourself."