Army seeks to restore $3 billion for tank upgrades

The Army has given Congress a $7.4 billion wish list of programs that did not make the Bush administration's request for either the fiscal 2006 wartime supplemental appropriations or fiscal 2007 defense budget request.

The Army's so-called unfunded requirements list, delivered Friday and larger than ones from the other armed services, includes $3 billion in heavy armor upgrades that had been dropped at the last minute from the requested supplemental.

House appropriators agreed informally late last week to add $850 million for the Abrams tank and Bradley Fighting Vehicle modernization programs to the supplemental, which they will mark up Wednesday. That money may be enough to keep production lines open, averting layoffs for General Dynamics and BAE Systems, the makers of the Abrams and Bradley, respectively, a defense industry source said Monday.

Of the $850 million, $100 million will pay for Abrams "urban survivability kits," allowing the Army to outfit the 3rd Infantry Division and National Guard units rotating into Iraq next year with, among other items, better armor and thermal sight systems.

The Army's unfunded priority list includes an additional $400 million needed to buy 1,145 Humvees. House appropriators likewise have agreed to address the issue by adding $480 million for Humvee procurement to the supplemental. They would offset that by cutting funding for the Humvee recapitalization program, which repairs vehicles to like-new condition.

Army leaders say they need another $331.9 million to buy 96 M88 Improved Recovery Vehicles, enough to outfit four combat brigades. The Army also wants $331.5 million to buy 12 Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopters and $71 million for five UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters to replace choppers lost in combat.

Other high-priority items include millions for new trucks, radios and night-vision systems. Despite the service's long unfunded list, the fiscal 2007 budget request "supports the Army's enduring mission to provide necessary forces and capabilities" to operations worldwide, Army Chief of Staff Peter Schoomaker wrote in a March 3 memorandum to House Armed Services ranking member Ike Skelton, D-Mo. The memo accompanied the two-page unfunded list, requested by Skelton.

Including the Army wish-list, the military's entire range of unfunded priorities total $21.8 billion, nearly a 48 percent increase over last year. In separate memos sent to Skelton over the last several weeks, Air Force leaders enumerated $5.6 billion in programs that did not make the budget request or the supplemental, while the Navy unfunded list comes to $4.6 billion for the Navy and $2.6 billion for the Marine Corps.

The National Guard also submitted a $1.6 billion list. "Our military's unmet needs are at record levels," Skelton said in a written statement. "We are seeing the costs and strains of sustaining a military at war."

Skelton said he was disappointed the Army list did not request money for an additional 17,000 National Guard soldiers. Federal and state lawmakers criticized the Army for budgeting for only 333,000 Guard soldiers, the actual size of the force now. Bowing to widespread criticism, the Army has said it will pay for as many troops as the Guard can recruit, up to the congressionally authorized end strength of 350,000 troops.