US Government, To date, the Army has received $38 billion to replace, repair, and recondition equipment that has been lost, damaged, or used extensively in conducting operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
For equipment returned from such operations, those funds are needed, the Army and Department of Defense argue, to restore items to a satisfactory working condition so that Army units that are not deployed to the theater will be ready to respond to crises that might arise. Additional money is likely to be needed in the future as well.
The Administration’s annual funding requests for resetting the Army’s equipment have increased steadily from 2005 to 2007, and the Army has said that it will continue to need approximately $13 billion annually for that purpose for as long as operations continue at their current pace and for at least two years after hostilities cease.
This Congressional Budget Office (CBO) paper, prepared at the request of the House Armed Services Committee, examines the Army’s requirements and the Administration’s funding requests for resetting equipment returning annually from Iraq and Afghanistan. In its analysis, CBO sought to identify the conditions affecting equipment being used in Southwest Asia that might prompt increases in the annual costs for resetting it.
CBO also developed estimates of annual costs and compared them with the Army’s estimated requirements and the Administration’s funding requests, and attempted to explain any differences between its estimates and those of the Army.
In keeping with CBO’s mandate to provide objective, impartial analysis, the paper makes no recommendations.
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