Army 07 budget boosts FCS, 'irregular warfare'
By Sgt. Ken Hall
March 1, 2006
WASHINGTON (Army News Service, March 1, 2006) – The Army will get $111.8 billion of the requested 2007 Department of Defense budget, including a nearly $4 billion boost to future combat systems such as unmanned aerial vehicles.
Close to 50 percent the Army’s requested budget for Fiscal Year 2007 will go toward personnel-related areas of military and civilian manpower and retiree pay, according to the assistant secretary of the Army for Financial Management and Comptroller.
The Army’s investment focus, according to Comptroller officials, is in line with the overall theme of the DoD budget for 2007, which prioritizes the capabilities of irregular warfare operations, defending American soil against advanced threats, maintaining America’s military superiority, and supporting service members and their families.
“We recognized the need to see that we had capabilities to defend the American people here at home,” Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee Feb. 7. But he also made clear that no nation has the resources or capability to defend against every conceivable attack.
“We recognize the reality that we have been very successful in deterring the threat from large armies, navies and air forces,” he said. “Those threats haven't disappeared, and the kinds of capabilities that are necessary to continue to see that they are deterred and dissuaded require investments, and they are not something that you can turn the switch on and off and have those capabilities.”
Rumsfeld noted that senior military and civilian leadership spent the better part of a year assessing the kinds of challenges that the country is likely to face during the next 20 years, and reiterated “it takes years to plan, develop, initiate, manufacture, deploy, train and outfit units capable of using those capabilities.”
“That's why the military must focus on developing a range of capabilities, rather than preparing to confront any one particular threat,” he said. “This [2007] budget would allow the U.S. to accelerate the transformation of the Army.”
More equipment, training
“The Army has paid enormous attention to the capacity that they need across the force, and they are devoting $21 billion, specifically earmarked for proper equipment and providing the proper training to the Guard and Reserve,” said Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Pace said part of the future Army transformation will be increasing 33 active brigades to 42, and taking 15 capable National Guard brigades and expanding them to 28, sustaining a total of 106 National Guard brigades and a total of 56 Army Reserve brigades.
The total 2007 DoD budget request for defense is $439.3 billion, a 7 percent increase of $29 billion over the 2006 budget. It was developed in conjunction with the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review, a congressionally mandated report every four years that looks at defense strategy, force modernization, infrastructure needs and other aspects of the nation’s defense. The 2006 QDR is the first to be completed while the nation is at war.
The Army’s budgeted investments for 2007 include:
• $3.7 billion in funding for the Army's Future Combat System, with major investments in unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned ground vehicles and battlefield command and communications systems;
• Pay increase of 2.2 percent for an additional $384 million for troops;
• Increase in language competency for languages like Arabic and others, to expand the language training for Special Operations and intelligence units, and increase pay and recruitment of native speakers to serve as translators and interpreters for operational forces;
• Bonuses and incentives to recruit and retain highly skilled personnel;
• An increase of 6.0 percent in basic allowance for housing for Army service members so that they do not have to spend from their pocket for housing;
• Final elimination of the remaining 49,000 inadequate on-base housing units; and
• Construction of new on-base living quarters for unmarried enlisted personnel, new child development centers, and for new educational schools and projects.
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