Army Brass Defend Vehicle Programs as Essential Senate Armed Services Committee leader Sen. Joe Lieberman put Army leaders on the hot seat Tuesday, asking for an explanation as to why the service wants expensive new combat vehicles instead of just upgrading its fleet of Bradleys and Humvees.
Expressing concern over the Ground Combat Vehicle and Joint Light Tactical Vehicle programs, Lieberman questioned whether the “higher cost of those two new vehicle programs is justified by the increased capabilities they will buy as opposed to sustaining current programs for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle and the Humvee.”
“Unit costs of those new systems are projected to be double or triple that of the upgraded, current generation Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Humvees that they are replacing,” said the chairman of the air and land subcommittee. “Obviously, they bring some improvements … so the broad question I really want to ask you is to elaborate on the operational need for those two systems and why, given the tremendous fiscal restraints we are all under, you think that the incremental money we are spending on the GCV and the JLTV is worth it?”
Lt. Gen. Robert Lennox, deputy chief of staff of Army G-8 and other Army modernization generals testified at the hearing as lawmakers are preparing to put the final touches on the proposed fiscal 2013 defense spending bill.
The Bradley infantry fighting vehicle suffers “from a number of shortfalls that we are aiming to correct with the Ground Combat Vehicle,” Lennox said, describing how the Bradley is underpowered, unable to carry a nine-man infantry squad and lacks growth potential for the future.
Lt. Gen. Keith Walker, deputy commanding general, Futures, and director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center, said the GCV is critical in the Army’s future defense against tomorrow’s more dangerous improvised explosive devices. The Bradley simply does not have the "maneuverability and the protection" rifle squads will need to survive future fights, he added.
“In November 2004 was the fight in Fallujah. … It was a tank fight, protected by riflemen in Bradleys. And if we did that again today, given the advances we have seen in IEDs and [explosively formed penetrators] we would lose a lot of people, " Walker said. "I think we can expect more of that in the future."
Army officials also say they have significantly revised the GCV program and are confident its price tag would be comparable to a Bradley that’s been modified to meet GCV requirements.
The Marine Corps-led Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program is just as important, Army modernization officials said.
Despite numerous armor upgrades over the years, the Humvee is incapable of protecting soldiers from the horrific blasts of enemy IEDs, Lennox said.
“The Humvee, as you know, is not a vehicle that soldiers can operate in outside the fence line,” Lennox said. “We desperately need a replacement for that.”
Lennox added that the Army and the Marines have worked together and “driven down the price [of JLTV] substantially.”
“It was about $450,000 a copy; we now think in the request for proposal, it’s about $250,000 a copy,” he said.
Lieberman then brought up last year’s Army Acquisitions Report, a document that “was quite critical of Army acquisition programs saying that ‘since 2004 the Army has spent $3.3 billion to $3.8 billion annually on weapons programs that ultimately were canceled.”
“I know it’s never possible to guarantee anything, but is it fair to say that you present this budget this year for fiscal 2013 with a sense of confidence that we are not going to be spending a lot of money on programs that are going to be canceled?”
Lennox pointed out that the Army’s modernization programs are low risk because the service isn’t asking for anything that the defense industry cannot deliver.
“We are not looking for miracles in armoring and armoring capability; we are looking at what industry can do for us today,” Lennox said.