TESTIMONY
OF
GENERAL GEORGE W. CASEY, JR.
VICE CHIEF OF STAFF
U.S. ARMY
BEFORE THE
UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES
SUBCOMMITTEE ON READINESS
REGARDING
THE FISCAL YEAR 2005 NATIONAL DEFENSE
AUTHORIZATION BUDGET REQUEST -
ASSESSING THE ADEQUACY OF THE FISCAL YEAR
2005 BUDGET TO MEET READINESS NEEDS
March
11, 2004
Introduction
Chairman Hefley, Representative Ortiz, members of the committee -
I
appreciate the opportunity to appear before
you to discuss the Army's readiness and our
plans to meet current worldwide commitments,
while we simultaneously transform to a more
flexible, capable, joint and expeditionary
force.
I thank the members of the committee for
their continued outstanding support to the
men and women in uniform, who make up our
great Army. Your concern, resolute action,
and deep commitment to America's sons and
daughters are widely recognized throughout
the ranks of our Service.
Current Posture
With over 320,000 soldiers deployed in 120 countries worldwide, the Army remains actively engaged in support of the nation's operational requirements. Approximately 165,000 of our Soldiers are overseas on 12-month, unaccompanied tours, and the vast majority of these troops are engaged in combat operations in the U.S. Central Command Area of Operations. Currently, the equivalent of eight Army divisions is either deploying to or redeploying from our overseas missions, including Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom in Southwest Asia, the Stabilization Force and Kosovo Force in the Balkans, and the Multinational Force and Observers mission in the Sinai. This constitutes the largest movement of U.S. forces since World War II. Couple that with the mobilization of more than 150,000 combat-ready National Guard and Army Reserve Soldiers, and you can see that this is an unprecedented moment in the Army's history.
The Army is the dominant land campaign force for our Combatant Commanders. Our centerpiece is the American Soldier. Today, these great Soldiers are performing extraordinarily well in tough combat and stability operations around the world. They understand their missions and willingly undertake their roles with pride and determination. They make a difference every day.
Readiness and Training
While the situations these forces face are challenging, I am struck by how well our Combat Training Centers and institutional education programs have prepared our leaders and soldiers for their missions and for the rigors of combat operations.
Our combat formations headed to Operation Iraqi Freedom have received a full-spectrum train-up, either at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana, or the Combat Maneuver Training Center at Hoenfels, Germany. This realistic preparation is based upon the lessons we gleaned from our combat operations and our ongoing security operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Army's training programs have also been, and will continue to be, the cultural drivers for the future. Leaders will not learn what to think, but instead how to think-jointly, strategically and within the context of an expeditionary mindset. We will continue to invest in cutting edge facilities and technology and constantly modify our curricula to reflect current and expected threats, and incorporate the lessons of actual operations, as we already are doing with the experience gained in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The One Army Concept
Our Nation and Army are at war. Our extensive commitments have highlighted stresses to our forces, which have existed for sometime. To mitigate risk, our Army has embarked on a series of initiatives. I would like to address several of these initiatives today, because it is important to understand how the Army is transforming itself as we provide trained and ready forces to Combatant Commanders.
First, we are rebalancing capabilities between our Active and Reserve Component forces to improve our strategic flexibility. Second, we are reorganizing our combat formations into modular, brigade-based formations to make them more self-sufficient and to facilitate force packaging. Third, we are initiating a force stabilization program to increase unit readiness, reduce personnel turbulence, and make life more predictable for our Soldiers, units and families.
These
efforts will yield an Army that has the
right capabilities to respond rapidly and
decisively to future challenges.
Rebalancing our Army
Being an Army at war provides focus and insights as we rebalance to meet the challenges of the emerging operational environment. We recognize that we must provide our Nation with full-spectrum, ground combat and support capabilities that can defeat adaptive enemies anywhere in the world.
Our challenge is not necessarily that we have too few soldiers. Instead, it stems from the fact that our formations, designed for the Cold War, must now meet the requirements of the Global War on Terrorism and other operations, which will persist for years to come. To meet the challenges of the future, we are rebalancing more than 100,000 spaces in our Active and Reserve Components - converting them to relieve the burden on the low density/high demand units, e.g., military police.
We
accelerated this process after September 11,
2001, to alleviate the stress placed on our
most-needed units. In compliance with
Secretary of Defense's guidance to minimize
involuntary mobilizations within the first
30 days of a contingency, we made further
progress in 2003. We expect Army
rebalancing measures to continue with the
same momentum in 2004, 2005 and beyond. Our
National Guard and Army Reserve have been,
and will continue to be, integral to the
planning and decision-making process for
this effort.
Modularity
In addition to rebalancing our forces, we are creating a brigade-based, modular Army to enhance responsiveness and to increase our joint and expeditionary capabilities. Webster's defines modularity as "composed of standardized units for easy construction or flexible arrangements." Although this may seem to be an oversimplification of what the Army is doing, it is precisely our concept.
The basic maneuver element in the modular Army will be the Unit of Action, similar to today's brigade. Units of Action will be flexible, self-contained and capable across the entire operational spectrum.
The Army intends to increase the number of Active Component brigades from 33 to 43 by fiscal year 2007; at that time, we will decide whether to continue the process to achieve 48 brigades. During the same time period, Army National Guard Brigades will reorganize into 34 brigade-size units using the same modular design as the Active Component.
The Chief of Staff has approved the initial modular design of the 3rd Infantry Division and its transformation is under way. Following rigorous training, to include rotations through our combat training centers at Fort Polk, Louisiana; and Fort Irwin, California; the Division will be reset for potential deployment anywhere in the world as early as the first quarter of fiscal year 2005.
Force Stabilization
The challenges associated with current operational requirements place significant stress on our existing force structure, both active and reserve. The approval of a temporary end-strength increase affords us the opportunity to implement permanent initiatives aimed at mitigating that stress to the force.
The force stabilization initiative consists of two complementary policies: unit-focused stability and home basing. Under home basing, Soldiers will remain at their initial installation for six to seven years -- well beyond the current three-year average. Unit-focused stability will allow Soldiers to arrive, train and serve together for roughly 36 months, enhancing unit cohesion, training effectiveness and readiness. During the unit's operational cycle, Soldiers can expect to complete an operational deployment rotation of six to 12 months. Overall, with force stabilization, units will have more reliable training and deployment schedules, and Soldiers and families will get a greater sense of predictability.
Installations
Installations are essential to maintaining the Army; they serve as our flagships. Our short-term installation plans center on three essential tasks: posturing installations as deployment platforms with robust, reach-back capabilities; adjusting installation support to meet the needs of an Army at war and transforming; and supporting the well-being of all Soldiers and their families.
Many of our installations require restoration and modernization to enable Army transformation and the rotation-based system of global engagement. In the past, the Army has repeatedly accepted risk in infrastructure and installation services in order to maintain warfighting capabilities and readiness; as a result, facility conditions have deteriorated. We are in the process of reversing the decay, but much remains to be done. Our overall goal is to achieve C-2 quality (minimal impact on mission accomplishment) by 2010, with specific facility types achieving C-1 ratings. In fiscal year 2005, the President's Budget has programmed $2.5 billion for sustainment, restoration and modernization (SRM) to stop deterioration and to improve our facilities; within that sum, sustainment dollars will cover 95 percent of requirements. We also have increased base operations support funding in fiscal year 2005.
Quality of Life
The Army strives to provide
its members, uniformed and civilian, a
quality of life equivalent to the society
they defend. They deserve nothing less. To
help fulfill this obligation, we have
increased Soldier compensation and decreased
out-of-pocket housing expenses. In fiscal
year 2004, out-of-pocket housing costs will
drop from 7.5 percent to 3.5 percent; we are
on a glide path to cutting those expenses to
zero in fiscal year 2005.
Our Army also is improving the housing
itself. Through the Residential Communities
Initiative and the Army Family Housing
program, 17,000 of our 100,000 sets of
quarters will be renovated by the end of
2005.
In addition, this year we inaugurated a
program with the private sector to increase
employment opportunities for our Army
spouses. Our objective in fiscal year 2005
is for 55 percent of spouses seeking
employment to obtain positions through these
corporate sponsorships.
Equipping the Force
Providing our forces with the
right equipment for the missions in Iraq and
Afghanistan and the Global War on Terrorism
is an imperative. To this end, we are
adapting and improving our acquisition and
fielding processes to better support our
warfighter. Thanks to congressional support
in the fiscal years 2003 and 2004 emergency
supplemental appropriations, our Army has
been able to obtain and field solutions to
$4.4 billion of operational requirements.
For example, in fiscal year 2003 we
implemented our Rapid Fielding Initiative (RFI)
to ensure that all of our troops deploy with
the latest available equipment. We
substantially compressed the procurement and
fielding cycle and revised schedules to
support unit rotation plans.
Our fiscal year 2004 goal for RFI is to
upgrade a minimum of 16 brigade combat
teams; to include three Reserve Component
Enhanced Separate Brigades, serving in
Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation
Enduring Freedom. More than $100 million
have been programmed to continue RFI in
fiscal year 2005.
Additionally, the Army has established a
Rapid Equipping Force (REF) that works
directly with operational commanders to find
solutions to operational requirements.
These solutions may be off-the-shelf or
near-term developmental items that can be
made quickly available. We also created a
task force to safeguard our Soldiers from
Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). Its
work is saving lives in the Operation Iraqi
Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom Areas
of Operation. In fiscal year 2004, the IED
initiative was funded solely through
existing Army programs, at a cost of $21
million. In light of its success, our Army
has decided to make the task force a
permanent organization.
Our modernization efforts continue and are
bearing fruit, as evidenced by the recent
fielding and deployment to Iraq of our first
Stryker Brigade Combat Team. Our second
SBCT will become operational this spring,
and the third in 2005. Three more SBCTs
will be fielded through 2008.
Our commitment to improve current and future
readiness is steadfast, even when that
entails making tough choices, such as
canceling the Comanche program. Though it
was a difficult decision, we believe it was
unquestionably the right one. By
reallocating funds originally intended for
Comanche the Army can buy almost 800 new
aircraft, upgrade or modernize an additional
1400 aircraft-modernization for almost 70
percent of our fleet-and outfit our aircraft
with the survivability equipment they
need. In fiscal year 2005 alone, the Army
will convert 19 Apaches to the Longbow
configuration, upgrade five Black Hawks to
the UH-60M configuration, purchase 27 new
UH-60Ls; buy four new CH-47Fs; convert 16
existing CH-47s into F and G models; and
procure 160 new, higher-power CH-47
engines. In addition, our Army will start a
Lightweight Utility Helicopter program,
under which we will acquire 10 new,
off-the-shelf aircraft in fiscal year 2005.
We need your support to use the Comanche
resources to fix Army aviation.
Setting the
Force
We are
in the process of reconstituting our
equipment returning from Operations Iraqi
Freedom and Enduring Freedom through a
rigorous, long-range plan known as "Setting
the Force." This program, which is designed
to restore our units and equipment stocks to
predeployment levels of readiness so they
are rapidly ready for follow on missions.
The goal is for all returning active and
Army Reserve units to achieve this level of
combat readiness within six months after
their arrival at home station. For National
Guard units, the target is one year.
The Army's Reset Task Force has determined
the repair requirements for all Operation
Iraqi Freedom 1 units. The workload
consists of approximately 1,000 aviation
systems,
12467,400
communications and electronics systems,
5,700 combat/tracked vehicles,
45,700-wheeled vehicles, 1,400 missile
systems, nine Patriot battalions, and
approximately 232,200 various other
systems. The basic reset plan incorporates
the use of domestic and overseas depot,
installation and commercial repair
facilities.
As part of setting the force, our Army also
will have to replace those weapons and
systems destroyed on the battlefield or too
badly damaged to be repaired economically.
The procurement requirements established
through our Reset Task Force cover only
known losses at this point and we expect
that they will grow as operations continue.
We also predict that, as we inspect and
repair equipment, the number of items
catalogued as uneconomically repairable will
increase.
Conclusion
In closing, the fiscal year
2005 budget will enable our Army to provide
our Combatant Commanders the requisite
land-power capabilities for the Global War
on Terrorism, homeland defense and other
worldwide commitments. It will enable us to
provide our Soldiers with the best available
technology and materiel, and to properly
train them to handle any situation or
challenge they encounter. The fiscal year
2005 request covers our baseline operations,
the 15 critical systems in our
recapitalization program and our
transformation program. It does not address
the on-going missions in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Our Soldiers continue to perform
magnificently around the globe.
Simultaneously executing the Global War on
Terrorism, implementing our modularity and
transformation initiatives, and setting the
force will be a challenge. However, it is
also an opportunity to reshape ourselves for
the future that we cannot pass up.
Your support of this budget and for our
on-going operations, specifically in Iraq
and Afghanistan, is critical if our units
are to continue their remarkable performance
and to be ready for future contingencies.
We appreciate your dedication to your
military and to America's sons and
daughters, who are serving selflessly
throughout the world to make America safe
and free. Thank you again for the
opportunity to discuss our Army and I look
forward to answering any questions you may
have.
2120 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
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