Army Slashes Abrams, Bradley Funding

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InsideDefense.com NewsStand | Jason Sherman | February 28, 2006

Eleventh hour cuts to the Army's portion of the fiscal year 2006 supplemental spending request stripped billions of dollars for key improvements to Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles, setting back service plans to modernize the force and threatening to break assembly lines that upgrade these front-line combat systems, according to Pentagon documents and industry officials.

Last-minute efforts by the Office of the Secretary of Defense to trim the Pentagon's supplemental request down to $65.3 billion in mid-February forced the Army to slash more than $2 billion from its combat tracked vehicle lines, according to Pentagon officials.

Army officials are now looking to the next “bridge supplemental” spending request -- which could come as soon as the fall -- to restore those funds, according to Pentagon documents.

But that may be too late to avoid an eight-month production break in the Abrams tank industrial base and cause severe disruptions in the Bradley line, driving up costs for the armored personnel carriers by as much as 50 percent, according to Pentagon documents and industry officials.

More than $1.2 billion was wrung from the Abrams tank line last week in the budget maneuver, sending shock waves through the tank industrial base and service modernization plans. This cut would delay fielding modernized tanks to both the active component and National Guard and push off engine improvements necessary for Iraqi urban operations, according to Pentagon documents.

The Army is looking to streamline by 2013 its fleet of Abrams tanks down to two types: the M1A2 System Enhancement Program (SEP) for the active force and the M1A1 Abrams Integrated Management (AIM) program for the National Guard.

That schedule may be reconsidered, industry officials said, in the wake of the recent cuts, which include: $588 million to produce 120 M1A2 SEP tanks for two enhanced brigade combat teams; $504 million for 210 M1A1AIM tanks for three brigade combat teams in the National Guard; and $155 million for the Tank Urban Survivability Kit that was to be purchased this year and fielded to units in Iraq next year.

The Bradley M2A3 program took a $1 billion hit, which will delay fielding the most advanced versions of the armored personnel carriers to three heavy brigade combat teams in the 1st Armed Division that are being transformed into modular units. The A3 variant of the Bradley has increased protection and is more survivable than older versions of the vehicle.

A key experimental Army unit that was slated to receive the A3 Bradleys will not receive them, according to Pentagon documents.

Without funds sought in the supplemental, Army effective Brady production plans could be derailed and upend the services' procurement strategy, driving up the unit cost of each vehicle by as much as 50 percent, according to Pentagon documents that detail the impact of the cuts.

Other combat tracked vehicle programs were also cut.

The M88A2 Hercules, designed to tow a disabled Abrams tank and other heavy tracked vehicles, had $331 million cut from the supplemental that were intended to completely outfit two heavy brigade combat teams. The cut will delay fielding of these vehicles by as many as three years, Pentagon documents state.

The M113 Family of Vehicles funding line also was cut by $90 million, which will affect improvements slated for 172 of the vehicles, including upgrades to the A3 variant of the M1068, M1064, M113 and M577, according to the Pentagon documents. A delay for these upgrade efforts will slow down by as many as two years transformation efforts of two active duty brigade combat teams at Fort Bliss and three National Guard brigade combat teams. The industrial base assembly line that support these upgrades will run out of work in fiscal year 2007.