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Pervasive Instability' in U.S. Army Programs
Since the Pentagon submitted its 2012 budget request in February, several of the U.S. Army's major acquisition and research programs have been restructured, thereby altering the amount of funding needed, a fact that lawmakers on Capitol Hill find disturbing.
In the conference report that accompanies the defense appropriations bill, passed by Congress as part of an omnibus spending bill for 2012, lawmakers describe the problem and argue its origins lie in the service's requirements process.
"After both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees completed their reviews of the fiscal year 2012 budget request, the Army provided additional information for its top-ten priority programs," the report says. Of these 10 programs, the Army had restructured six of them.
For example, in February the Army requested $776 million for its Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS), but has since adjusted that requirement to $463 million, due to schedule delays and restructuring of the Ground Mobile Radio subprogram, according to Army documents submitted to Congress.
In the final bill, Congress agreed to $427 million for the program.
The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) has also seen major changes to its acquisition strategy over the year.
Despite the Army's February request for $423 million, Senate appropriators decided to cancel the JLTV program, citing cost overruns and constantly changing requirements.
In response, the Army and Marine Corps went to the Hill to explain how the program had changed since the budget had been drafted.
"The Department completely revised the JLTV acquisition strategy, finalized essential requirements and made the necessary cost-informed trades to achieve an affordable program," the Army said in an information paper submitted to Congress.
In the end, lawmakers agreed not to cancel the program and partially restored its funding.
Since February, the Army has reduced its request for the Ground Combat Vehicle by $414 million. Initially, the service said it needed $884 million, but it has since revised that requirement to $470 million.
The Army explained that its new requirement covers the two contracts it awarded for the technology development phase of the program.
In the end, Congress provided $449 million for the vehicle effort.
The Army has also changed its plans for the Armed Scout Helicopter, the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle and the Ground Soldier System, now called Nett Warrior.
As a result of all of these changes, the Army identified over $1 billion that it no longer needs, according to the conference report for the appropriations bill.
Since February, the Army no longer needs an additional $309 million due to program terminations. Meanwhile, it has requested transfers of over $282 million among 10 different programs.
"This magnitude of change in funding across a multitude of programs, identified after submitting the budget only ten months prior, indicates a pervasive instability in Army programs," lawmakers said in the conference report.
This is not just a problem of the Army being at war for the last decade, although lawmakers agree that this has forced major changes upon the Army, from its doctrine to what it buys.
However, "since 1995, the Army has spent $32 billion on development of 22 programs that were eventually cancelled."
Since the cancelation of the $159 billion Future Combat Systems program, the Army has been trying to get its modernization efforts back on track, paying special attention to pursuing realistic technologies that can be delivered to soldiers much faster.
Lawmakers acknowledge the steps the Army is taking to improve the acquisition process, but they urge the service to dig deeper and start where they believe the problem lies: the requirements process.
"The conferees believe this history of programmatic instability indicates a lack of focus and discipline in the requirements-generation process that must be corrected before the Army will see any improvement in its ability to successfully modernize," the conference report says. "The conferees are aware that Army acquisition has taken on the responsibility of vetting each requirement for technical maturity and affordability prior to initiating a contract action, but the conferees are concerned that this is a short-term correction to a larger institutional problem with the requirements generation process."
Lawmakers applaud the service's Network Integration Evaluations taking place at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. However, these tests have revealed that a handful of the systems "would not be effective if deployed."
While this is a worthwhile lesson, one that is causing the Army to re-evaluate what it buys, it causes lawmakers to "question the long-standing requirements process that serves as the foundation for Army modernization."
To this end, the writers of the conference report urge the secretary of the Army to begin a serious review of the requirements process.
'Pervasive Instability' in U.S. Army Programs: Lawmakers - Defense News
Since the Pentagon submitted its 2012 budget request in February, several of the U.S. Army's major acquisition and research programs have been restructured, thereby altering the amount of funding needed, a fact that lawmakers on Capitol Hill find disturbing.
In the conference report that accompanies the defense appropriations bill, passed by Congress as part of an omnibus spending bill for 2012, lawmakers describe the problem and argue its origins lie in the service's requirements process.
"After both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees completed their reviews of the fiscal year 2012 budget request, the Army provided additional information for its top-ten priority programs," the report says. Of these 10 programs, the Army had restructured six of them.
For example, in February the Army requested $776 million for its Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS), but has since adjusted that requirement to $463 million, due to schedule delays and restructuring of the Ground Mobile Radio subprogram, according to Army documents submitted to Congress.
In the final bill, Congress agreed to $427 million for the program.
The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) has also seen major changes to its acquisition strategy over the year.
Despite the Army's February request for $423 million, Senate appropriators decided to cancel the JLTV program, citing cost overruns and constantly changing requirements.
In response, the Army and Marine Corps went to the Hill to explain how the program had changed since the budget had been drafted.
"The Department completely revised the JLTV acquisition strategy, finalized essential requirements and made the necessary cost-informed trades to achieve an affordable program," the Army said in an information paper submitted to Congress.
In the end, lawmakers agreed not to cancel the program and partially restored its funding.
Since February, the Army has reduced its request for the Ground Combat Vehicle by $414 million. Initially, the service said it needed $884 million, but it has since revised that requirement to $470 million.
The Army explained that its new requirement covers the two contracts it awarded for the technology development phase of the program.
In the end, Congress provided $449 million for the vehicle effort.
The Army has also changed its plans for the Armed Scout Helicopter, the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle and the Ground Soldier System, now called Nett Warrior.
As a result of all of these changes, the Army identified over $1 billion that it no longer needs, according to the conference report for the appropriations bill.
Since February, the Army no longer needs an additional $309 million due to program terminations. Meanwhile, it has requested transfers of over $282 million among 10 different programs.
"This magnitude of change in funding across a multitude of programs, identified after submitting the budget only ten months prior, indicates a pervasive instability in Army programs," lawmakers said in the conference report.
This is not just a problem of the Army being at war for the last decade, although lawmakers agree that this has forced major changes upon the Army, from its doctrine to what it buys.
However, "since 1995, the Army has spent $32 billion on development of 22 programs that were eventually cancelled."
Since the cancelation of the $159 billion Future Combat Systems program, the Army has been trying to get its modernization efforts back on track, paying special attention to pursuing realistic technologies that can be delivered to soldiers much faster.
Lawmakers acknowledge the steps the Army is taking to improve the acquisition process, but they urge the service to dig deeper and start where they believe the problem lies: the requirements process.
"The conferees believe this history of programmatic instability indicates a lack of focus and discipline in the requirements-generation process that must be corrected before the Army will see any improvement in its ability to successfully modernize," the conference report says. "The conferees are aware that Army acquisition has taken on the responsibility of vetting each requirement for technical maturity and affordability prior to initiating a contract action, but the conferees are concerned that this is a short-term correction to a larger institutional problem with the requirements generation process."
Lawmakers applaud the service's Network Integration Evaluations taking place at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. However, these tests have revealed that a handful of the systems "would not be effective if deployed."
While this is a worthwhile lesson, one that is causing the Army to re-evaluate what it buys, it causes lawmakers to "question the long-standing requirements process that serves as the foundation for Army modernization."
To this end, the writers of the conference report urge the secretary of the Army to begin a serious review of the requirements process.
'Pervasive Instability' in U.S. Army Programs: Lawmakers - Defense News
