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WASHINGTON(Reuters): The US Army said Wednesday it was trimming a $162 billion modernization drive, its top weapons-buying program, because of competing demands for defense dollars.
Four of 18 digitally linked systems are being pared from the so-called Future Combat Systems project, designed to give U.S. troops' greater battlefield awareness.
“The army has a limited budget and many requirements,” Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Sorenson, a top weapons buyer, told a briefing at the Pentagon. “We had to balance those requirements against our funding constraints and make sacrifices.”
Chicago-based Boeing Co. and San Diego, California-based Science Applications International Corp. co-manage the project under a $20.9 billion contract that stretches to 2014.
On Monday, President Bush sent Congress a $481.4 billion budget request for the Defense Department in fiscal 2008, up 11.3 percent from the amount approved the year before.
The Army's share would be $128.6 billion, up from $110.5 billion, not including its part of $141.7 billion sought for the U.S.-declared war on terror in 2008.
Sorenson said the modernization program, known as FCS, was meeting cost, schedule and performance goals, despite $825 million in congressional cuts over the past three years.
Dropped were two families of unmanned aerial vehicles. A heavy armed robotic vehicle and an advanced munition system were deferred.
These adjustments would save the Defense Department more than $3.4 billion through 2013, the army said.
By juggling roll-out dates and stretching production plans from 10 years to 15 years starting in 2015, the army said it planned to speed the delivery of some capabilities to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Starting in 2008, the first of three “spin outs” of early FCS technologies and equipment will be sent to troops to prepare for operational testing in 2010, an army statement said.
The project ties together manned and unmanned vehicles, sensors and munitions to make forces lighter and more mobile.
Overall, the program was now projected to cost $162 billion through 2030 taking into account inflation, Sorenson said.
Bush requested $3.66 billion for Future Combat Systems work in fiscal 2008, which begins on Oct. 1, up from $3.39 billion the year before.
Any new cuts by Congress would undermine significantly U.S. ability to fight ground wars, Sorenson said
