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Lighter mobile military { June 27 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37869-2003Jun26.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37869-2003Jun26.html
Panel Votes $369 Billion for Arms
Fiscal 2004 Appropriation to Help Pay for Streamlining Military Forces
By Dan Morgan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 27, 2003; Page A27
The House Appropriations Committee yesterday approved without debate or opposition $368.7 billion in Pentagon spending for fiscal 2004 that closely follows the Bush administration's recommendations.
Additional requests for defense funds are sure to follow as the costs of the U.S. occupation of Iraq are tallied and met, senior House Republicans said. For the 2003 budget year, which ends Sept. 30, Congress provided the Defense Department with $426.7 billion to run its regular operations and fight the war in Iraq.
Democrats on the committee, who have lambasted GOP policies on homeland defense, education and land conservation during a series of bill drafting sessions this month, accepted the defense package without objection.
"There's no doubt that the American public is very supportive of our spending sizable amounts of money for national security," said Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.), who chairs the subcommittee overseeing the defense budget.
The bill approved yesterday pays for a series of initiatives aimed at reshaping the military into the lighter, faster-moving and better integrated force envisioned by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
These included $1.7 billion for the Army's Future Combat System, a centrally controlled network of ground and air-based robots, sensors, light armored vehicles and guns; $35 million for the Stryker Brigade Combat Teams, which will operate a mobile gun system; $4.2 billion for the Joint Strike Fighter, a next-generation plane that could be launched from carriers or land; $158 million for the Navy's Littoral Combat Ship, a small vessel that would be able to perform a variety of missions along enemy coastlines; and $100 million to "accelerate the development and procurement of the [Air Force's] next generation bomber."
Reflecting the Pentagon's increasing reliance on clandestine units in warfare, the panel recommended $4.6 billion for the Special Operations Command, $160 million more than requested.
But even as it approved money to transform the military, the committee raised questions about some of the systems.
The panel noted that the Navy had provided no "road map" for developing the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), estimated to cost $220 million per vessel. Costs of the new, Virginia-class nuclear attack submarine, which is yet to be delivered, have soared to $2.6 billion each. Yet "other assets," such as satellites or the LCS, might be able to perform some of the missions assigned to the subs, a committee report said.
The panel also expressed concern about problems with the Joint Strike Fighter, whose short-takeoff variant is "approximately 1,200 to 1,500 pounds over its target weight." The committee informed the Navy it would not recommend procurement of a minisub being built to ferry commandos close to enemy beaches until problems with its battery had been resolved.
In other areas, the panel showed a reluctance to part with older, proven systems. For example, it blocked the Army's plan to stop buying Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles and it set aside $458 million to buy upgraded versions. A key supporter of the Abrams upgrade, to be done by General Dynamics Corp. in Lima, Ohio, is Rep. Michael G. Oxley (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
A controversial plan to phase out the Pentagon's force of 100 KC-135E tankers and replace them with converted 767 jets leased from Boeing Co. won the panel's support.
A General Accounting Office report said the tankers are in better shape than the Air Force contends. The bill approved yesterday rejected an administration request for funds to replace engines on the KC-135E fleet. New engines could keep the Air Force tankers flying, postponing the switch to leased aircraft.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
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